Reviewing this game is difficult. On one hand....it's a really fun action-RPG that has a nice story, interesting characters and fun gameplay. On the other hand....it had the worst camera known to video games, a goofy difficulty curve and sometimes frustrating controls. More details, you ask? Well, ok then.....
Kingdom Hearts is a SquareSoft action-RPG. Just saying that would probably sell one million copies. SquareSoft is highly respected (and for good reason) and their games sell like hotcakes. For this game, they teamed up with Disney for a very much hyped-up game that, in my opinion, failed to live up to expectations.
The story is a usual confusing, but interesting Square-type story. You play the role of a young boy named Sora. He lives on an island with his friends. They dream about getting on a raft and venturing to new worlds and having adventure after adventure. One day, the "Heartless" appear all over the world and take over many lands. After some confusing crud about you warping to another town, you find yourself alone and on an adventure to find your friends.
Meanwhile, Donald Duck and Goofy are looking for their king, Mickey Mouse. (Told you it had a Disney theme to it) and you run into them and the three of you band together to fight the Heartless and find your friends. The story itself is appealing and not THAT hard to follow. Each world that you go to has a Disney theme to it. You explore many of the areas from various Disney movies. You meet many characters from the movies, as well, and it's really fun. I liked swimming around an ocean fighting hearless beasts with Ariel (drool) from "The Little Mermaid". Aladdin, Tarzan, Hercules, Alice, & the guy from "A Nightmare Before Christmas" are there. And many more. Even many Disney villains make an appearance.
The gameplay is more action than RPG. Basically, for better or worse, this game becomes a hack-and-slash affair. You gain experience and use magic like in a RPG, but you spend most of the time mashing on the 'X' button. You only control Sora, while Donald and Goofy are controlled by the A.I. You can set their tendencies to how you like them, however. Donald is the magic type and Goofy is a decent warrior with great defense.
The main problem I have with the game is the hideous camera. This has to be the WORST camera ever in ANY game. It's all over the place. I don't know who play tested this at Square, but they need to have their heads examined for letting this game out the door like this.
I had heard the game is hard, but most of the way through it I never had a problem with it. Then you get to the end. It not only gets hard, but damn near impossible without just running around and leveling up like crazy for 10 hrs. This normally wouldn't be that bad, if not for the camera I just mentioned making the battles much more difficult than need-be.
And who's "great" idea was it to implement the gummi ship mini-game? I don't have enough space to explain my issues with it here, but once you play the game, you will know what I mean.
And I say "once you play the game", because you really should still buy this game. Even though it has some serious flaws, I feel it's still worth a purchase. I got a kick out of seeing the Disney characters so well implemented into a quality action-RPG. Just don't go into it expecting Final Fantasy XII or anything.
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