Kingdom Hearts

Category: Video Games
Genre: Adventure
Console: PlayStation 2

Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ) is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console.

A collaboration between Square Enix and Disney, the game combines characters and settings from Disney's animated features with those from Square's Final Fantasy series.

On first thought, we might consider it an unusual team-up. But once you start to play, you will be surprised to see how well the Disney and Square characters blended to each other's worlds.

The story follows a young hero, Sora, and his friends, Kairi and Riku, who resides in Destiny Islands. Dreaming of finding another world outside the islands, they get ready to set sail, but before they have the chance, the forces of Heartless intervenes. Separated from his childhood friends, Sora finds himself in Traverse Town, where he is eventually joined by Donald Duck and Goofy, who helps him on his quest.

If there's anything I love with this game, I love the story most. More specifically, I love how it links together Sora's story with stories from Disney animations and Final Fantasy games. It's a wonder how they put in Final Fantasy characters and blend in the stories of each character so well that we still recognize them as they were from the stories they came from. We recognize Cloud Strife (from Final Fantasy 7), when Hades paid him to participate in the Olympus games to destroy Sora's team. From it we remember how he worked as a mercernary for Avalanche in FF7, and he appears with the same cold but unsure character he was.

I loved having Ariel too. She fits in with Sora's story very well. Like Sora, she dreamed of visiting the "other worlds". On her part, she meant the world above water, and Sora's part, the world outside the island. It is like they're retelling the old stories with a different twist! And yes, having Beast (Beauty and the Beast) on my party was an honor. His determination to save Belle mirrors Sora's intent to save Kairi from the Heartless. And just who did not appreciate Maleficent's stunning performance as a villainess?

I think Sora, Kairi and Riku's story is simple (with that, I mean not over-complicated and dramatic) but really touching. It has just enough comedy and action to mix with the melee fighting system. Another thing to look forward when playing this game (if you haven't yet) is the FMVs. Their FMVs are, decidedly, some of the bests I've seen.

I have yet to play any Kingdom Hearts sequel, (but I fully intend to) but I just know that Square and Disney combined means the ability to create legends. ;)