By Sean Ewing
This is the first in a series of reviews, called “Budget Gamer” highlighting games that have recently dropped in price, thus making them more accessible to the average college student. Square-Enix has finally allowed some of their classic games to be a part of the Greatest Hits line for the Playstation 2, bringing their price to $20. One of the games included in that line is the instant classic Kingdom Hearts.
If you’ve never heard of Kingdom Hearts, it is the result of collaboration between Square-Enix and Disney. You have the world’s premiere animation studio and one of the top videogame developers in the world working together on an adventure; it had every reason to be a great game. However, the end result is far better than anyone had any right to expect.
The game follows an average boy named Sora. He’s in his early teens, and lives on an island with his friends Riku and Kairi. One day, his island is attacked by creatures known as “The Heartless” and he is sent on a journey across many worlds. Each world is representative of a Disney movie, so one stage my find you teaming up with Peter Pan to defeat Captain Hook, while in the next you’ll be trying to save Alice from the Queen of Hearts. Of course, as collaboration, Square fans can find their plenty of favorites throughout the game, as well as child versions of the heroes from Final Fantasy X. You also have two constant companions; Goofy and Donald Duck always accompany Sora and back you up in combat, as well as provide characters for Sora to interact with.
The game is actually an action RPG, not a genre Square-Enix dabbles in much, but the game play is fantastically well tuned. Bosses are difficult, but never impossible; you never have a problem making jumps unless they are intentionally tough; Sora moves very well, and has a useful move set. The meat of any action RPG is the combat, and Kingdom Hearts rewrites the genre. You earn new moves by leveling up, and can extend your combos, set special finishing moves, learn entirely new combat moves, customize your magic through an intuitive “hot-key” menu, and various dodge moves help you avoid attacks and get in position to counter attack. The lock-on feature is well implemented, and you can switch targets on the fly. Donald and Goofy have reasonable AI and you can set their various preferences, so you can set them to stay back and use special moves and magic more or to rush into the fray.
The union of Square-Enix and Disney may sound bizarre on paper, but they balance each other perfectly. Square-Enix has a tendency to make their characters too depressing, too tragic, and Disney can certainly be accused of being “happy-go-lucky.” The end result is an amazing story, certainly one of the best told on any platform, with Riku, Kairi, and Sora especially, feeling very real. They are thrown into a wild situation, and they are just doing their best to find each other, and understand what’s going on. When playing through the game, it’s almost impossible not to get emotionally invested in Sora. He’s just innately likable. Most gaming heroes are either two dimensional “bad asses” or morose, moody, “emo” heroes. Sora feels real, you can’t help but root for him.
Speaking of the acting, they pulled no stops in the production of this game, getting almost all of the original Disney voice actors, barring Danny DeVito, James Woods and Robin Williams. Square-Enix hired Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) to voice Sora, and he brings a wonderful sort of hopefulness and determination to the role.
This game isn’t perfect. The camera can be problematic and some could complain the pacing of the game is a little off. In the end though, the story is so well told, the game is so well put together, and if you’ll forgive the pun, it’s just so full of heart, that you can’t help but love it. This is The Legend of Zelda for a new generation.
Final Grade: A