Kingdom Hearts
After looking at Friday the 13th
last week, I thought it would be nice to look at something on the opposite end
of the scale. Something that was bright and colourful with an optimistic tone and no hockey masks in sight. In that respect, Kingdom Hearts
fit the bill perfectly.
Kingdom Hearts tells the story of Sora,
who lives on Destiny Islands with his friends Riku and Kairi, until the Islands
are destroyed by the Heartless, separating Sora and his friends. Sora is given
the Keyblade, a magical weapon that can defeat the Heartless and teams up with
Donald Duck and Goofy (yes, that Donald Duck and Goofy,) who are searching for their
missing ruler King Mickey, who set off on his own to battle the Heartless and
hasn’t been seen since. The three form a close bond as they travel the various
Disney worlds to find their friends and, in Sora’s case, restore his home.
The important part of that brief plot summary
was the final sentence, specifically the bit about Disney worlds, as the big
draw is the opportunity to visit the locales of various Disney films, such as
Neverland, Agrabah, Wonderland and even Halloween Town. This is particularly
apparent in this first game, which sold itself a lot more as a Disney
crossover. As a result, the original elements are much more basic, as nobody
was buying Kingdom Hearts for them. Nowadays, that’s no longer true, as the
series has developed its own original cast of characters and a reputation for a
convoluted storyline to surpass Metal Gear. The original elements weren’t
always planned: a new character was created to be the hero as a compromise
because Disney and developer Square couldn’t agree on whether Mickey Mouse or
Donald Duck should be the main protagonist. The overarching plot may be more
basic than later games, but on the plus side, all of the Disney worlds help
advance it in some way, big or small, whereas in later games, many of the
Disney worlds have only tangential relevance to the overall plot at best. Worth
mentioning is that Kingdom Hearts 3 appears to be going back to this game’s
style of having the Disney worlds be directly relevant – the plot of the Big
Hero 6 world will involve Baymax coming back as a Heartless after sacrificing
himself in an alternate dimension to save Hiro. This means that when Baymax
removed his chip so that Hiro could escape, he willingly gave up his heart. As
if the end of Big Hero 6 wasn’t upsetting enough already!
The worlds have been chosen carefully,
with all of them offering a varied setting, as well as being a mix of older
films and more recent selections from the 90s line-up. It works well in a game,
as each corresponds to an archetypal game level setting. Agrabah’s the desert
level, Tarzan’s jungle is the jungle level, Ariel’s undersea kingdom is the
water level, and so on. The only thing missing is a slippery slidey ice world,
which is forgivable since Frozen didn’t exist at the time the game was made.
(On that note, Frozen in Kingdom Hearts 3 is inevitable. It’s no use getting
worked up over it.) This means the adventure feels seamless and the crossover
entirely natural. Each level also comes with various unique challenges,
exploration opportunities, and puzzles, which are largely absent from later
games, and reward the player here with new items or experience. The same
variety extends to the Heartless. As well as some kinds that appear in most
worlds, each world has types of Heartless that are unique to it. For example,
Neverland has a crew of pirate Heartless led by Captain Hook, under the sea you’ll
find jellyfish and diver Heartless, Halloween Town is haunted by ghost, mummy
and gargoyle Heartless, and Tarzan’s jungle is home to Heartless monkeys, as
well as a tricky boss fight with a Heartless chameleon that can turn invisible.
Aw, who’s a cute widdle world-kiwwing
abomination? You are, yes you are!
You're not. You're just a world-killing abomination.
In terms of combat, Sora has a basic
keyblade combo which gets longer as he gets longer, and a set of spells that
are upgraded upon reaching certain story milestones. He can also equip special
abilities that let him throw his keyblade like a boomerang, charge around or
perform an elaborate combo using MP. In addition, he fights alongside Donald
and Goofy, as well as a fourth party member, who varies depending on the world
and includes the likes of Aladdin, Peter Pan and Jack Skellington, all of whom
come with their own abilities. The other party members are able to pull their
weight in battle, even if they do sometimes get overly aggressive and get
themselves knocked out unnecessarily. Fortunately, they’ll get back up after a
period of time following defeat, and the game only ends if Sora is defeated,
meaning that Sora’s safety should be your top priority. Sora also has a set of
summons that can bring other Disney characters to your aid, but these aren’t
all that useful, and you probably won’t use them much after the initial go when
you obtain them for curiosity’s sake. However, Tinkerbell is an exception, as
she steadily regenerates Sora’s health until he is defeated, at which point she
revives him with full health before disappearing, making her game-breakingly
good.
Unfortunately, there are some flaws to
bring up. At times, it shows that this is the first in the series, most notably
in the combat, which is quite slow and basic at this stage. In later games, it
would get a lot faster and flashier, with impressive and varied combos
possible, so the first game doesn’t hold up as well in retrospect. While the
ability to explore the worlds is commendable, some worlds aren’t designed
terribly well and are a chore to play through. It’s easy to get lost in the
catacombs of Agrabah’s Cave of Wonders or the undersea caves. Halloween Town
has only one save point right at the start of the world and in this game, party
members can only be switched around at save points, which means going all the
way back to the start to switch members around and effectively starting over,
not to mention only being able to enter doors when all nearby enemies are
defeated, unlike other worlds which allow you to flee without fighting if you’re
injured or just in a hurry. The worst is Monstro, a maze of garish, nauseating
pink rooms that’s liable to have players get lost trying to find the next
objective, then get lost trying to retrace their steps, as well as causing
biologists to cry themselves to sleep over the creative liberties taken with
the insides of a giant cartoon whale. It doesn’t help that the controls are
quite floaty and don’t lend themselves to precise movements, which you’ll need
to do a fair bit of. On one hand, messing up a jump won’t kill you, but on the
other hand, you will be dropped in another area and have to go all the way back
to where you were for another go, which can take a while in some levels.
Worlds are selected from a map and
travelled to using the Gummi Ship. This allows players to fly to each world,
shooting down other ships and avoiding obstacles as they go. This quickly gets
very tedious, as your ship travels very slowly, the courses are bland and
blocky, the enemies fly towards you and rarely actively engage you in a
dogfight, and the whole thing feels inconsequential. In addition, you’ll have
to fly the Gummi Ship again to revisit previous worlds, and you can only go
between two worlds at a time, so if you want to go from Agrabah to Neverland,
you’ll have to stop at Halloween Town along the way, and set off again for
Neverland from there. Worse, there are bonus missions you can do to achieve a
certain task before reaching your destination, but they can be interrupted and
cancelled through no fault of your own thanks to wormholes that warp you to
other areas of the map or an untimely visit from Monstro. A short way into the
game, your ship will be upgraded, allowing it to warp immediately to worlds you’ve
previously visited. This is an absolute lifesaver, and if you’re anything like
me, you’ll never fly the ship properly again. The Gummi Ship is another aspect
that was improved significantly in the sequel, the dull flight courses were
replaced by a fast-paced, visually spectacular rail shooter with much more
aggressive enemies, and you’d only have to fly the course on your first visit
to a new world, with the option to replay the course later if you want to.
Kingdom Hearts is a game that is still
worth playing today, though being the first in the series means that it doesn’t
hold up as well as some of the later games due to only having the basics down
and not having everything in place yet. This is a game that sells itself on
nostalgia for both Disney and the game itself, but as I started with Kingdom
Hearts 2 and didn’t play this until years later, I don’t have that nostalgia,
so the flaws are harder for me to overlook. It works well as a stand-alone
game, but for someone who was curious about getting into the series as a whole,
I would recommend Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, as the gameplay is more in
line with the rest of the series, it’s a prequel set 10 years before the first
game, which means the story is pretty straightforward, and it’s a strong
contender for the best game in the series.
Graphics: 8 The
game does a great job of capturing the style of each Disney film featured and
recreating it in 3D.
Sound:
8 Most of the voice acting,
a mix of the original voice actors reprising their roles and sound-alikes, is
pretty good. The music is very memorable, though some series staple tracks
haven’t been introduced yet.
Gameplay: 7 The
combat is basic and clunky at this stage, and would be refined later. Worlds
allow more exploration than many other series entries, but can be a bit too
maze-like.
Lifespan: 7 Decently
long, with plenty of hidden chests and optional activities to discover.
Overall:
Kingdom Hearts is a charming start to the series, though today it shows
its age with how basic some aspects are that have been further developed in
later games. 7/10
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