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[GAME REVIEW]
With all the old and familiar characters that pop up in Squaresoft's latest PlayStation 2 role-playing game, "Kingdom Hearts," the game may just as well have been named "Final Fantasy in Disneyworld," referring to Square's popular "Final Fantasy" game series.
Kingdom Hearts
Platform: PlayStation 2
Manufacturer: Squaresoft
Genre: Role playing
ESRB rating: All ages
By Wilma Jandoc
wjandoc@starbulletin.com
But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, spinoffs can be just as good as or better than the originals, and "Kingdom Hearts" is on such a track.
You play a boy named Sora who lives in an island community. His friend Riku has been chomping at the bit to explore other worlds since a girl, Kairi, arrived from an unknown place.
But Sora's dream of a mysterious "key" to other worlds unsettles him. And just before the three sail for new lands on a makeshift raft, black clouds engulf the island, releasing the shadowy creatures Sora encountered in his dream. In Sora's hands appears a swordlike key that easily slices through the hordes of monsters, called Heartless, but he is eventually swallowed by the darkness.
Cut to the Disney Kingdom, where the court magician is Donald Duck, the captain of the guard is Goofy and the king is -- who else? -- Mickey Mouse. The king secretly leaves to investigate strange happenings, telling Donald to protect the "key bearer."
Sure enough, Sora, Donald and Goofy get together to find the king and Sora's friends. Turns out that each world has a keyhole leading to its core. Sora must use the Keyblade to lock each keyhole to prevent the Heartless from taking over.
Most of the game's originality ends with Sora, Riku and Kairi, although Disney's hand in their character designs is evident as they sport shoes that would be worthy of the Mouse himself or Ronald McDonald.
Adventures take place on various Disney movie settings, with their well-known heroes and bad guys. You match wits against Jafar in Agrabah and battle Cerberus alongside Hercules in the Coliseum. And the main characters are taken from the Disney or "Final Fantasy" universes.
"Final Fantasy" fans might get a kick out of hearing voices from older characters. Among them are the energetic Selphie and stoic Squall (here called "Leon") from FF8, while Aeris is resurrected from FF7 (but here spelled "Aerith").
The fleshing out of those characters with voices and interaction make them much more alive, which will definitely hold FF fans' interest.
But the main draw -- and drawback -- of "Kingdom Hearts" is its action-packed battles, though its system has big flaws. It's incredibly easy to lose your bearings during battle, especially if at the same time you're trying to chase after the munny (the game's currency) and healing balls that explode in all directions from a defeated enemy.
There is a target system in which you can lock onto one enemy so all your attacks focus on it. However, the lock doesn't keep you facing the enemy all the time, so it's hard to keep track of foes.
And there is no way to instantly swing the camera so you can see what's immediately ahead -- an omission constantly plaguing 3-D games.
Camera views in general need work; the camera can swivel 360 degrees, but it will stop if it hits an obstacle. This proves a problem if you're in a narrow space, such as a hallway, and want to see what's ahead of or behind you.
Of course, the computer-controlled Donald and Goofy are there to help, and you can customize their actions to be as offensive or defensive as you want. Their control is decent, but they use cure potions like water no matter what setting they're on.
But the biggest drawback in battle is that the game does not pause while you choose items to use. You use the directional pad to move from the "attack" to "item" command, and you must go back to "attack" before you can bash enemies again.
Just try to quickly switch commands and scroll through the item list using the pad with your left hand, while frantically trying to avoid monster attacks using the left analog stick.
COURTESY OF SQUARESOFT
Kingdom Hearts features chaotic battles in various Disney-created worlds, such as this scene in the Deep Jungle, home of Tarzan.
Magic use is the same, but slightly easier with the option to assign spells to three shortcut buttons. But it gets difficult once you get more than three spells.
Outside of battle, one point of contention is the Gummi ship. (Nope, no Gummi Bears; the ship is run by chipmunks Chip and Dale.) You fly the ship to other worlds in a sort of mini-game, encountering obstacles and fighting enemy ships along the way -- if you can manage to keep your aim straight.
This is great the first few times you set out, but the thrill fades very fast. Not only does the ship move gummy-slow, it's also hard to figure out if you have space to clear the obstacles.
Thankfully, you get a warp engine not too far into the game so you can skip previously traveled paths.
Despite the battle system's faults, "Kingdom Hearts" is addictive exactly because of that wild, nonstop action that will have you needing Dramamine in no time, a welcome change for RPGers bored by turn-based attacks.
And don't think the liberal use of Disney property makes this a kiddie game. The opening scenes through Sora's dream are almost creepy, throwing you into battle not 10 minutes into the story and asking you to make decisions that affect the progress of your game, in a dark contrast to its general humor.
That humor appeals to all ages with a mix of the unexpected and classic cartoon slapstick -- Donald is about to walk through a door when it slams open from the other side and flattens him into the wall, for example. And Sora has his share in the comic relief.
The combination of fun and frustration, with a lighthearted music score by Yoko Shimomura and beautiful animation, makes Kingdom Hearts an intense and thrilling game.
Wilma Jandoc covers the universe
of video games and anime for the
Star-Bulletin. She can be emailed at
wjandoc@starbulletin.com
