I had read a lot about how great Kingdom Hearts is, and since it is now a favorites title, I decided to pick it up. I can now safely say that I wasn't dissapointed. From the sheer amusement of hearing Donald Duck go crazy every once in a while to the intensity of some of the final battles, this game has it all.
Graphically, the game is very strong. The people at Square Enix have somehow managed to transport the 2D disney characters into 3D, without making them look like 3D disney characters. More concisely, when you play this game you won't think "Wow, it's Disney characters in 3D," but you'll think "Wow, it's Disney characters!" The Disney locations are also presented extremely well, from Halloween Town to Neverland to Wonderland. Animations are very fluid, and spell effects range from subdued to extravagant. The only real downside for the graphics is that the camera will occaisionally get stuck on walls.
The sound is another strong point. While not completely voice-acted, there is a fair ammount of voice acting in this game, and further, it is well done. Sora, for example, is voiced by Haley Joel Osment. The musical score, on the other hand, is catchy, but not perfect. I was pretty tired of hearing "Under the Sea" by the time I was finished with Ursula.
Gameplay is, of course, what makes or breaks a game. That said, Kingdom Hearts fairs mostly well in this category. While an RPG at heart, if a parallel had to be drawn between another Squaresoft game and this one, the Secret of Mana series would make the most sense. All combat is real time and monsters respawn. And boy do they ever respawn. Combat is largely done by mashing the X button, with the occaisional spell or ability thrown in for good measure. While fights don't become horribly boring, it would be nice if there was a little more to the combat system. Leveling, as it does in all good rpgs, has its perks, and getting to that next level is generally exciting.
Most areas in the game have several puzzles that require solving before Sora is able to progress any further. For the most part, the puzzles are fairly simple, and the gamer won't often find themselves in a situation where they simply don't know what to do. Sidequests and minigames also abound in Kingdom Hearts, and almost all of them are a lot of fun to partake in. The Colliseum battles in particular are a lot of fun.
Since this title is now a greatest hit, it is worth every penny of the $19.99 it's going for. Without a walkthrough, a gamer will easily spend over 30 hours completing it, and a bit more getting that 100%. The mix of Disney and Sqauresoft seems awkward in theory, but works out beautifully in practice. If you ever wanted to fight against Squall or Cloud, now's your chance. The old favorites from Final Fantasy games can be nostalgic, and the cameos from disney movies leave a sense of awe. Kingdom Hearts simply continually left me with a sense of "Wow...that's so cool." And when a game does that, it's easy to overlook it's shortcomings, such as repetitive combat and a sometimes faulty camera.
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