Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

There were two great influences in my early youth. One was Disney, mostly the animated films like Beauty and the Beast and especially The Lion King. Later on, I got into videogames, mostly role-playing games. The most important of them all being the Final Fantasy series. My first game was Final Fantasy VII on the PSone. And so time passed and Kingdom Hearts was released. I was shocked by how weird it was. At first it didn't make sense to me. I felt it was shameful to put those two things together in one game. Disney and Squaresoft. More than five years pass and now I've replayed Kingdom Hearts all the way to the end. Shed tears from beginning to end.
The reason for this is probably that I'm older now. I can now look at the game from a higher perspective than before and I finally respect and adore it. Squaresoft ingeniously utilized their traditional form of battle system in complete real time. During gameplay, you control Sora, the main character who is accompanied by Donald who casts magic and Goofy who attacks with a shield. Yes, that would be Donald Duck and Goofy from the Disney universe. You travel to different worlds where Disney characters reside. The game's cast is full of Disney characters, many with authentic voice-overs and visually brought to life. There are also appearances of many Final Fantasy characters, including Cloud from Final Fantasy VII and Squall from Final Fantasy VIII. You can easily see how this is being targeted to a select group of players, those being that enjoy Squaresoft RPGs.

Even if that's the case, Kingdom Hearts stands up very well on its own. On a general basis, the great amount of colors and bright fantastic music appeal to most people. The game is relatively easy making it a fun experience for anyone willing to play it. There is an "expert" difficulty for anyone who prefers a more challenging experience instead of just the story.

My personal review of this game is tied very much to the fact that it combined two key elements of my infancy. Seeing it now, I see it more as a grand farewell to my childhood. And seeing as how this really was the end of the road for me (SquareEnix has hardly impressed me in the last decade), it feels very important for me now. A big compilation of happiness to look back on.