Kingdom Hearts I


Game'scover

About the Game

Kingdom Hearts I was the first installment of a series which became world known. The game were it began Sora's Journey that lasted over 20 + years. The game was developed by Square Enix or previously known Square soft and it was released in 2002 for the Ps2 console which is where it stayed as prior consoles couldnt handle the game or weren't as huge as Playstation was in Japan. The game was heavily praised for combinning the magic of Disney with the action of Final fantasy. The ps2 also received the final mix version which was japan only. The game remain on the Ps2 through out the years. An extended remaster (or previously known final mix) called Kingdom hearts 1.5 was released in March 2013 for the ps3. The 1.5 version of the game included the remaster/extended version of the GBA game Kingdom hearts: ReChain of memories and the game called Kingdom hearts 358/2 the DS game, however unlike the others the game is in the form of render Cutscenes. 1.5 was also released as a bundle with 2.5(a similar bundle made for Kh2) in a new bundle called Kingdom hearts 1.5 + 2.5, yet again in a new bundle called Kingdom hearts: The story so far (1.5,2.5 +2.8) and finaly its inlcuded in the Kingdom hearts All in one bundle (a bundle which also included Kh3). The all in one bundle was released for the rest consoles such as Xbox,Pc and switch as cloud. The game's ps2-ps3-ps4 version have graphical changes and better loading screens. Furthermore 1.5 version includes alot of extra boss batlles and cinematics that were scratch off from the original game as the developers didnt have time to imply it before the deadline fo the shipment.

Whats is Kingdom Hearts?(no spoilers)

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee who is known for working on final fantasy vii. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between Square Enix and Disney based in a fictional universe. The main character Sora, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy journey around various Disney , Pixar and originally designed worlds.They battle the heartless and various creatures of darkness in order to save the world from the darkness. Throughout their Journey they make new friends along the way, characters from the disney world they visit and various final fantasy heroes. The series consists of thirteen games , and with the release of Kingdom hearts III in 2019 and The Remind DLC 2020, the game finaly concluded it's first saga known as the Xehanort Dark arc. After the events of the Remind DLC (2020), the game released Kingdom hearts Melody of memory which prepared th stage for the next game. In 2022 Kingdom hearts 4 was revealed alongside a new app game . The series are well received from the public although sometimes its beeing critisize for its bizzare story telling. The main issue of the series was the fact that all the games add to one story, however they re split to multiple platoforms such as Ps2,psp,ps4,Android,gba and the Ds. Square Enix though realised the mess they made and the remastered the games and released them as collections for ps4 and xbox. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including Cds with the soundtracks of the series,multiple figurines,plushies,clothing ,companion books(guides,artbooks), light novels, a collectible card game, manga series(by Akira Amano) and potentially an upcoming TV series.

Story of the Game (Minor Spoilers)

Game's iconic shake
Kingdom hearts 1 had a relatively easy to follow story as this is where everything began. The story begans in a beatiful island called the Destiny islands. Here the players meet three characters who will be seeing throughout the games, Soram Kairi and Riku, three friends who were making a raft in order to escape from their island and explore the world outside. At the same time in another world, a known duck is walking towards the kings room, however instead of the king, Donald Duck finds Pluto with a letter left to him by the king. Shocked by the letter Donald rushed to Goofy and explained to him how king Mickey is talking about an upcomming disaster that needs to be proceed with caution as multiple worlds are dissappearing. He also asks for Donald and Goofy to venture around to found someone with a major key, as he would be the savior of the situation. Back in the island Sora is vistited by a mysterious figure, that talks about darkness and multiple worlds whose doors have openned. Sora obviously didnt understand anything the clocked figure mentioned but before he can explian the figure left. On the same night a heavy storm hit the island that wake Sora who thought of checking in with the raft to make sure the waves and wind didnt carry it away or smash it on the rocks. When he stepped outside the house he noticed plenty of black figures chasing him and an enormous red moon. Sora couldnt see much but he noticed Riku to whom he approaches. Riku talks about the door to other worlds being open and how once they travel there might be no comming back. As he sais that shadows appear and everything fades to black. Sora wakes up with a key in his hands and rushes to where the door is where he sees Kairi being exhausted as a wind blows telporting them all away.

Donald and Goofy hang around in Traverse town searching for Pluto. On a different path, Pluto finds Sora who wakes him up and runs away from him with Sora chasing him soon after. Sora witnesses the same black creatures killing people and slaving their hearts. WIth Sora defeating them he founds out Leon ( from Final fantasy iV) who explains how as long as he is the key holder he ll be under attack. Leon defeats Sora and with Yuffie (from FF VII) take him to rest. Meanwhile Aerith(from ffvii) meets up with Donald and Goofy. The heroes explain to Sora how he was Chosen by the keyblade it self to play the role of the hero. They proceed to explain how all the worlds are in danger as the Heartless (the black creatures) attack the worlds. The heroes are being told by the parties that Ansem (a scientist ) was studying the heartless however his research is scattered around the world and that they should be gathered. Heartless attack both the parties and through this event Donald and Goofy found the keyblade chosen, Sora. The three fight of the heartless forming a new team with the goal of

The three become friends and create a fellowship. The story that follows have the trio travelling around multiple Disney worlds, rescuing them from the heartless and searching for their friends. The adventures take them to the worlds of Alice in wonderland, Tarzan, Nightmare before Christmas and many many more. Each planet has its own original story involving familiar Disney and Final Fantasy heroes who have their own tale and part in the story. In most cases the villains of the respectfull world reprize their goal as being the bad wise with Maleficent being "kind of" the leader. Important to state is that Riku who has been seen close to darkness reappears relatively early and seems more different. He is using darknsess as his own power and he is annoyed by Sora, who he believes replaced both him and Kairi with his new friends Goofy and Donald. Furthermore, Maleficent is also being seen near Riku poisonning his mind with different idealogies and false claims. Needless to say the adventure of Kingdom hearts 1 is the beginning of the franchise.

NOTE: Each Kingdom hearts game has it's story completely finished, meanning that anyone who plays the game will enjoy an entire 40hrs story mode with an ending that satisfies the player but also leaves the door open for more to come. The majority of the questions asked, have been answered through the game however other questions were answered or revealed in other games such as Birth by sleep, dream drop distance and others. The game beatifully introduces the player to the main cast, the beatiful Disney worlds that some return some dont, worlds originally designed for the game and plenty of iconic characters. The music of the game is top tier, as some are the iconic Disney tunes such as this is haloween, Under the sea and others that were originally made by Square Enix. Kingdom hearts music is undenyably top tier, as since the games initial release there have been a plethera of sold out concert events called Kingdom Hearts Orchestra where the band plays the songs melody. Also in 2020 the Developer team made a rythm game Melody of Memory which put multiple of songs in to create a full on Game. The game's story mode is delivered mainly through fully voice acted cutscenes made within the game and a few that are delivered through dialogue speech boxes. There are a few CGI cutscemes but the majority is in game engine scenes.

Gameplay

Sora and crew at Hollow Bastion
The game focusses on Sora and his friends who visit various Disney worlds helping who ever needs their help, while at the same time trying to find Kairi, king Mickey and Ansems study Notes. The players get Control of Sora, a young boy who was chosen to yield the iconic Keybalde. The game is an action role playing game which combines real-time combat, quick commands and RPG elements that boost the status of heroes. The Kingdom hearts series have also been referred to as Hack and slash RPG games as certain difficlties are too easy(usually up to Normal) and mashing attack usually works. Kingdom Hearts 1 specifically leans more towards to mash the attack button, which is something the other games improved upon. When the heroes visit a new world, the players are free to manuver around and explore the areas. Each map consist of various items such as power up materials and chests containning various of items. Sora is able to walk around, jump and double jump to reach higher areas and glide(after a certain point) to reach further locations. The players party consist of three heroes, Sora Donald and Goofy. Each time a world is visited the player can swap one between Donald and Goofy in order for a new party member to join. This member is in regards to the planet they visited, EG. Tarzan, Jack the skeleton, Peter Pan etc.

The combat of the game is fun and flashy. The player can equip their skill points to increase their combos, their damage and their overall status. Sora can hit the enemies with his keyblade and his ability to cast magic.

Close Combat is mainly achieved through the keyblade. Mashing the attack combo will allow Sora to hit his nearby enemies. The close combat of Kingdom hearts 1 is abit limited and thus Sora's extended combos are not as flashy or cool looking as the others but nevertheless they re still fun and easy to pull. The game itself offers a fair amount of enemies for Sora to fight on ground or on air. The game allows Sora to use AP points in order to upgrade Sora's abilities by simply oppening the menu. The player can customize their playstayle at any point as skills that were equiped can easily be removed and replaced by a different one. The skills that the game offers are good and usefull. Some allows Sora to slide towards the enemy in order to deliver the first hit, others extend the combo +1, others to parry and exedra. The keyblade can also be used to block attacks or even parry upcomming attacks.

Maleficent Final Boss

For Long range attacks Sora can use his magic abilities. Magic is slowly obtain while playing the game. They re part of the main game and thus when the time is right it will be given to the player. These spells can be activated by manuvering in the command menu (bottom left), selecting the option Magic and which spell is to be catsed. The second and more efficient way is to use controller shorcuts to simply press a button to open the quick command magic menu and press any of the buttons responsible for a spell. The spells require MP Bar(magic/mana bar) which is located around Sora's portrait in blue color. Each time a spell is cast the bar will be reduced and the spell of cure (which is health increase) will consume all the bar. A projectile spell is fire and thunder which are attacks shot towards certain enemies(locked on). Aero is the only spell which can be used defensively. The spell created air waves around Sora and hits enemies that are close to Sora. In a way, this is a nice way to both cover the player and to also deal damage towards them. Some spells evolve into a better versions of themselves when leveling up and others are given to Sora by interacting with the cast. Projectile attacks can also happen with the keyblade given that the player enchances Sora's ability with the keyblade thrown attack.
Note: the skills of the party members can also be swapped by the player.
Another way of using skills is through the power of Summons. Summons are Disney heroes that join Sora during the fight. By manuvering into the command menu, there is an option of Summons. Summons very similar to magic they require MP bar. When the summon is cast, a cinematic occurs of the hero being summoned and each does its own thing. Simpa joins Sora to fight, Tinker Bell heals the party and drops healling orbs and Banbi they reindeer drops multiple items. When enemies are defeated and when items are broken they drop three types of orbs. The green orbs are absorbed for healling and blue for MP restorations. The third thing is not spheres, but weird shapes that can be potions, items and other usable options.
Each time the player clears a map the Party is given a different keychain that Sora can use to change the keyblade. In other words, its a different weapon. Each weapon has it's own stats such as Attack, defence and others. Nevertheless, this does not mean that they key with the highest numbers is nesessarily the better one because each key has it's own passive ability. For example a blade may increase the strength of the first strike, another one may be better in aerial combat, another one increassing the power of certain spell, HP orb drop rates and so on. It is recommended to always read what each keyblade offers extra other than the typical number change.

Gummy Ship

The final new gameplay element is the Gummy ship. The gummy ship is the way Sora and party move from planet to planet. Each time that the player visits a new world they re require to play through a level of the gummy ship before unlocking the fast travel. The Gummy ship are linear levels where the player controls the ship and try to reach from Point A to B without exploding. The ship literally moves straight and the player can shoot enemies or upcomming meteors. These sections were consider the single worst thing aabout the game, as they re unnesessesarily bad and extremely slow. The player needs to make sure he dodges hoops, meteors and other small stuff that can cause damage. Some enemies drop healling items for the player to heal. Once the Gummy ship reaches the point B, the world is unlocked and the heroes can land on the planet. The Doors that represented the ship levels open and the player can simply never touch the gummy ship levels of Kingdom hearts 1 again.

Worlds and level design

custom Pic custom Pic
As mentioned above the game focuses on Sora and crew as they move in around the cosmos visiting worlds one after another. Some of the worlds are originally designed by Square Enix themselves while the others were designed by Square Enix however, they re based on their Disney movie counter parts. For example, the destiny islands is an original area designed by SqE but worlds like Atlantica and Wonderland are based on their movies (Little Marmaid and Alice in Wonderland). The worlds of Kingdom hearts one are small sandboxes that combine each part with another. The maps do not make it clear as to where to go and so it's easy to be lost. Each time the player visits and area they have their appearance change in order to look as if they re of this world and not outsiders, in order to protect the world order. For example, in Hollow Bastion the heroes look like themselves however when visiting a world like Atlantica, Sora becomes a marmaid man, Goofy a turtle and Donald Duck an octapus. This is a beatiful way to show new forms for the heroes to match the world. Nightmare forms (Nightmare before Christmas) look scary and very interesting. It should also be mentioned how the enemies also receive the same treatment which enchances the games beauty. To elaborate heartless appearring in Atlantica change their forms to wild dolphins, in deeo Jungle they turn into monkeys and in the Nightmare world into jack the latterns. The levels themselves have also their own unique design and gameplay elements. Tarzan's Jungle is filled with big trees, robes and giant leafs floating on water, Nightmare world is filled with gravestones, latterns and others. The world of Wonderland requires the player to constantly shrink or grow up by eating and drinking the appropriate item. All the worlds have plenty of checkpoints (Save clouds) that the player can use to save their progress. Save spot is where the player will respawn or acess when teleporting back in the map. There are also plenty of locations where hidden chests are. Some require a small puzzle to be solved while others require the player's observation skills.

Collectables - Post Game content

The game has a few collectables for the player to collect. These collectables do not include the keyblades and summons, as most of them are given to the player through the Story. These are:

  1. Trinity Points
  2. These are icons of three hearts connected as a ring. These marks require the player to bring the normal crew onto them and interact with them. By doing so a cutscene will play that will either spawn rewards/items/chests or open a path that was hidden before. The players cannot interact with them from the start but the more they progress through the story the more trinity marks become interactable.
  3. Torn Pages of Lost Arc Woods
  4. The Wizard Merlin request Sora to collect some of his lost pages that can be fused with his book. This book consist the story of Winnie the Pooh bear and his friends. The world of Pooh bear has it's own unique story but plays nothing like the rest as there are no enemies. Infact the levels of this world are mainly used for minigames.
  5. 101 Dalmatians Dogs
  6. Pongo and Perdy lost their 99 puppies throughout the various worlds and request that the heroes will help them find them. Each time Sora returns with puppies that were found, the player will receive various of rewards each time.
  7. Mushroom Heartless
  8. These mushroom shaped heartless appear in random locations around the worlds and each have their own minigame. The mushroom rewards the players with plenty of items.
After the player defeats the final boss, a number of secrets boss encounters will become available. These bosses are harder than others and some require mechanicks. The phantom boss requires the player to constantly freeze the clock in order to attack the enemy. The other two secret encounters become available in the hercules world. The world of Hercules has alot of cups for the player to compete. These cups are waves of enemies that Sora and crew will have to go up againts. These levels include bosses that were not in the game such as Hades, Yuffie and others. However the biggest/toughest challengers the cups have to offer is the Ice Titan. the other boss that can be found in the Colloseum fights is the Sephiroth boss battle. Kurt Zisa is the final secret boss battle that can only be accessed from Agrabah.

Final Thoughts

trio in destiny Island

Overall Kingdom hearts I was game that came up with possitive reviews and began the journey that would become the Kingdom hearts series. Seeing how a ps2 game still gets Ps4 remasters it shows that the game definetely surpassed the test of time as people still talk about the game and people still play the game till this day(20 years as of the writting of this.) The story of kingdom hearts 1 is very simple as things were just begining and the goal was simple. The combat of the game was very polished, simple and had potential to be extend. The gummy ship gameplay may be the game weakness but it's only a small portion of the game which seen a major improvement in the both Kingdom hearts 2 and 3. The graphics and music are absolutely on point with alot of iconic disney and orginal songs. Under the sea, This is halloween, Destati and Simple and clean are songs that people remember and love. The maps are very well design with unique locations everywhere and different mechanics left and right. For example in Hollow Bastion, using blizzard allows the player to freeze the water bubbles in order to create platforms for them to walk upon. The game is mainly voice acted with only a few instances where speech-bubbles appeared. The upgrades that Sora receive are usefull and the players can always choose where to spent their AP points. The boss battles are challenging and requires alot of attention to detail in order to survive. The collectables are hidden everywhere and the players should try to pay attention of their whereabouts as collecting them may reward them with Gems that re needed in order to form Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ultimate weapon the ultima.

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