Disney Meets Square and Kingdom Hearts is Born: A View on the series from the First Game to RE: Coded

Anyone out there remember watching Disney movies back in the old days? How about playing the older Square games back on the likes of the NES and SNES? I am sure there are a lot of people out there that do. Now let me ask you all just one more question. Would you have ever thought that these two things would have ever come together? I am sure most have not. A company like Square, makers of such franchises as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger and the such, together with the likes of Disney, creators of The Lion King and Aladdin. Well, in the end, the first Kingdom Hearts came out and turned out to be a good game which started a vastly loved series by gamers over the years.

The game play of the series is that it is an action RPG. You will run into enemies as you run through the levels, you won’t get transported into battles like in Final Fantasy. As you fight, there will be a little menu on the bottom left of the screen where the player would choose to use normal key blade attacks, magic, items, or special attacks. The only difference in the series from this would be Chain of Memories where you have to use cards to be able to do attacks and use magic. As you play through the game you will be collecting cards and will be able to build up your deck. My thoughts on this are that I think both concepts are pretty interesting and the style in Chain of Memories may not be up to par with the rest of the series, but it is different enough to still be fun and it does make the player have to use strategy more so than the other games. Most people probably didn’t like it but I thought it was ok. Both game play styles are different kinds of RPGs but they are both still fun.

Gameplay: 9/10

The graphics in the series is like a mix of the basic Square-Enix anime style that is normally seen in Final Fantasy with a style that would normally be seen in any Disney movie. For a series like this, I think it makes a whole lot of sense. The Kingdom Hearts series is not supposed to be a “serious” game, at least for the most part, so it does not need the art style seen from a game like Final Fantasy XIII. I like the style in Kingdom Hearts and I think it works well.

Graphics/Presentation: 8.5/10

The sound in the series borrows off from a ton of music you would hear from Disney movies as well as music that would make sense in a Final Fantasy game. Saying this, the background music is usually well done and in some ways, can be very nostalgic for the player depending on their history with Disney movies. Besides just the background music, the actual voice acting in the game is pretty well done. With the likes of Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher, alongside some of the voices that were in actual Disney movies (one of the most notable missing is that Robin Williams is not voicing the Genie) brings in some quality voice actors. Some characters have better voice work than others but overall, it all works together pretty well.

Sound: 9.5/10

When it comes to the story, I will do an overview of where we are in the series so far. In the first game, Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi set off from their home island, Destiny Island, to visit other worlds. As they are about to leave, Sora and his friends get sucked into the darkness and get separated. Sora comes across getting the key blade and ends up in Traverse Town where he meets Donald and Goofy. They are on a search for their king and Sora joins up with them as he tries to searches for his friends as well.

After being considered the key blade master, Sora goes along with Donald and Goofy as travel through various Disney worlds with the use of their Gummi Ship. They face off against different Disney villains such as Captain Hook and Jafar along the way and find out that various Disney princesses were being captured so that Kingdom Hearts could be opened. They find out that Riku was working with the Heartless later on, but soon find out that he was being controlled by the main villain of the game, Ansem. Sora frees Kairi and then alongside Donald and Goofy, takes on and ends up defeating Ansem. They make it to Kingdom Hearts and find both Riku and King Mickey who end up closing it.

This is where Chain of Memories comes in, at the end of the first one when Sora and the group are lost on some plains. They meet up with a cloaked figure that leads them to Castle Oblivion, where the Organization XIII is in control. A few members of the group are in control of the castle and you find out that some of them are trying to overturn the rest of the group. Sora finds out that someone named Namine is captured by them and unbeknownst to him, is being used to destroy Sora’s memories as he ascends floor by floor. As he goes up, he meets up with Riku but finds out that this one was a fake created by the Organization. While at the same time, the real Riku was taking on the Organization as well elsewhere in the castle. At the end, Sora defeats the leader of the group, Marluxia, and frees Namine. He ends up going into a pod where stay until he gets all of his memories back.

This is where Kingdom Hearts 2 comes in, and the game starts off with the player playing as Roxas. Alongside his friends, you live out the rest of their summer vacation as they search for the secrets of Twilight Town. Everything seems to be going alright until Axel, one of the Organization members from Castle Oblivion shows up. He goes on about how Roxas was his friend and that he was in the Organization. Roxas doesn’t believe him at first, but after receiving two key blades and facing off against Axel, alongside seeing Sora is the pod, he knew it was all true and the town he knew was a fake. Sora wakes up with his memories back and alongside Donald and Goofy, set out on another journey to find out the secrets of Ansem the Wise and Organization XIII. They take out the remaining members and end up meeting Kairi, Riku, and King Mickey. Sora saves Namine again and defeats Xemnas, the leader of the Organization, alongside Riku and they all end up getting back to Destiny Island.





358/2 Days takes place at the end of the first game and goes up until the second game. It shows Roxas’s time inside the Organization and how his life was there. The game also reveals that there was a fourteenth member, Xion, and what happened to her. Birth By Sleep is a prequel to the first game; it is about Ven, Tetra, and Aqua in a time where the “key blade war” was going on. It showcases the origins of most the Organization members too.

RE: Coded used to be a mobile phone game but was remade for the Nintendo DS just this year. The game takes place after Kingdom Hearts 2 when Jiminy Cricket finds that the journal he wrote from the first game has gone blank, except for one line which was written by Namine. King Mickey uses the computers back at his castle and finds that a virus is in it. So they send in a digital version of Sora to find out what caused it. As he goes through the worlds from the first game, the diary keeps get more messages revealed in it and secrets are revealed.

Story: 9/10

Multi-Player in this series is very, very scarce though. Only one game so far has put it in and that was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. You can play with up to three other players and go on missions based from ones you play in single player and I am sure there are multiplayer only missions as well. You will be able to player as any of the fourteen members of the Organization or even some secret characters you can unlock throughout the game, like Sora and Riku. I have not got a chance to actually play the multiplayer in the game but from what I heard, it seems to be quite fun and is an interesting addition that could be improved upon in the future of the series.

Multiplayer: 7.5/10

In the end, I really have to say that the Kingdom Hearts series is a pretty good series. It is not perfect by any means, but it is quite an enjoyable series and is just plain fun. The series started back in 2002 and even though people thought the series could never be or would fail, it has survived for nine years and has a total of six games now that span the PS2, GBA, DS, and PSP. It has had its ups and downs throughout the years but has still found its way to become a popular series among gamers. I would assume it is because of the mix of two great things like Square and Disney. It is a series that will be around for years to come and I am gladly anticipating Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance on the Nintendo 3DS.

Overall (for the entire series): 8.7/10