Game Review: Kingdom Hearts

So last week I wanted to make a blog post, but I got lazy and I used the blog post that I did during Fall Break. Also, so far the games that I've written about are fairly new and have come out with in the last few years, but now I wanted to go back in time a little and make a blog post about a game that I really enjoy and that I still play from time to time. It's called Kingdom Hearts and it was released way back in September 17 of 2002.

So this games was developed by Disney and Square Enix and they basically took characters from both of their worlds and combined them into one. So through out the game we see famous characters from the Final Fantasy series like: Cloud, Sephiroth, and many more. Then we also see characters from famous Disney animations like: Simba from the Lion King, or Maleficent from Snow White (she's an enemy). And you even get to partner up with Donald and Goofy as your sidekicks. On top of that, you can also learn how to summon different characters to help you in battle like: Mushu from Mullan, the Genie from Aladin, and many more for a total of 6 summons.

Sora

The story begins that there is this group of kids that live by themselves on Destiny Island. They don't really tell you how they got there, just that they live there and that they can do anything that they want because as far as we can tell, there is no adults on the island with them. In particular, there is this group of 3 kids that are the main characters of the story. First is Sora, he is the main character and you will play as him. 

Heartless

At the beginning of the game, Sora gets separated from his other 2 friends: Riku and Kairi. Then suddenly a bunch of little back monsters called the Heartless start to show up. They don't tell you why they are there, all Sora knows is that they want to kill him. So from out of nowhere, Sora gets a weapon called the Keyblade. 

After Sora defeats all the Heartless that invaded the island, Sora find himself in a place that he has never seen before. Thats when Donald and Goofy find Sora in a place called Transverse Town. They explain to him that they are emissaries of Disney Castle sent by King Mickey to find the wielder of the Keyblade. They form a team and together they travel to different Disney themed worlds to seal the hearts of those worlds so that the Heartless can't invade them as well.

Throughout the game, they find different Disney villans that have come together to destroy the different worlds and attain great power. But at the same time, Sora is concerned about both Riku and Kairi.

Riku

Kairi

Riku gets brainwashed by Maleficent and becomes your enemy. Kairi is a very special girl, and I won't talk about her because then it ruins the end of the game. One thing that I do want to point out is about the names of the three main characters. There is a special meaning to each of their names and the creator said that he named them like that because he wanted them to have sort of a special bond even before the game. Sora means sky, Riku is means land, and Kairi is suppose to represent light.

I really liked this game, because the art style is just amazing. They managed to combine the goofy (I'm not talking about the character here) Disney look with the Japanese Anime feel with the main characters. What I mean is that in Disney animation we usually see characters running around with big shoes that look almost like a clown's. And then we have the Japanese look that usually means having big eyes (look at Kairi's picture) and almost like an image that is too perfect to be real.

Then the music was great, I love the Japanese singer that they picked to make the theme song for the game. She is one of my favorite Japanese singer, her name is Utada Hikaru. She is great, and she sings with such passion that its just awesome. I posted a link to the ending of Kingdom Hearts that has the theme song. Remember that it is the ending, so don't watch it if you want to play the game.

Well, thats all I have on Kingdom Hearts. There is more games in the series, so I will make a blog post about Kingdom Hearts II in two weeks. In the meantime, thanks for reading.