2008 Woodie Awards
Disney and Squaresoft join forces for new game
Will the title be a success?
Paul Davis
Issue date: 10/10/02 Section: Opinions
Many people know the magic of Disney and have been touched by their creative ideas, whether young or old. The other company that combined with Disney is known throughout the gaming world, and any gamer has probably been touched by them, as well. This company is Squaresoft, which is known for the "Final Fantasy" series. These two media behemoths have come together to create "Kingdom Hearts."
This game includes many Disney character homes and a great deal of Disney characters, but the Squaresoft characters are not so abundant. Though a slight disappointment, Squaresoft did a good job with the material they had.
They also had a great number of talented voices behind the scenes. One that is of great interest is Haley Joel Osment who starred in "The Sixth Sense." This new star is the voice of the main character. Lance Bass of N'SYNC stars as the voice of Sephiroth, the villain of "Final Fantasy 7."
The visuals in "Kingdom Hearts" are excellent. The game uses very few full motion videos (which helps enhance the graphics) because the in game graphics are good enough to use for the cut scenes. The characters from Disney look like cartoons, which was very impressive with some of the other more Square oriented graphics.
The introduction has an awesome song by Utada Hikaru called "Simple and Clean." The rest of the music is based on the area you are playing in. Wonderland has music from "Alice in Wonderland" and mixes it up for the battles. The songs are great.
Game play is fun and ingenious. There is no difference between the normal world and the battle screen as in most RPGs. Instead, the commands switch up and you don't have as many menus to enter. There are a lot of enemies and fights are common, getting you killed much more than in any other RPG. I suggest taking those fights and leveling up as much as possible. Also, for the faint of heart, don't start on Expert mode.
Finally, there's the replay value. This game has at least two endings and possibly more. There are more mini games and side quests than a gamer can shake a controller at. Unless you pick up a strategy guide, it could take many times around in this game to finally beat everything it has to offer.
Overall, I rate the game 9.5. I strongly suggest any who have Playstation 2 buy it, despite it being rated "E" for everyone with Disney thrown in. It's still well done and once more applause should be given to the great Squaresoft.
This game includes many Disney character homes and a great deal of Disney characters, but the Squaresoft characters are not so abundant. Though a slight disappointment, Squaresoft did a good job with the material they had.
They also had a great number of talented voices behind the scenes. One that is of great interest is Haley Joel Osment who starred in "The Sixth Sense." This new star is the voice of the main character. Lance Bass of N'SYNC stars as the voice of Sephiroth, the villain of "Final Fantasy 7."
The visuals in "Kingdom Hearts" are excellent. The game uses very few full motion videos (which helps enhance the graphics) because the in game graphics are good enough to use for the cut scenes. The characters from Disney look like cartoons, which was very impressive with some of the other more Square oriented graphics.
The introduction has an awesome song by Utada Hikaru called "Simple and Clean." The rest of the music is based on the area you are playing in. Wonderland has music from "Alice in Wonderland" and mixes it up for the battles. The songs are great.
Game play is fun and ingenious. There is no difference between the normal world and the battle screen as in most RPGs. Instead, the commands switch up and you don't have as many menus to enter. There are a lot of enemies and fights are common, getting you killed much more than in any other RPG. I suggest taking those fights and leveling up as much as possible. Also, for the faint of heart, don't start on Expert mode.
Finally, there's the replay value. This game has at least two endings and possibly more. There are more mini games and side quests than a gamer can shake a controller at. Unless you pick up a strategy guide, it could take many times around in this game to finally beat everything it has to offer.
Overall, I rate the game 9.5. I strongly suggest any who have Playstation 2 buy it, despite it being rated "E" for everyone with Disney thrown in. It's still well done and once more applause should be given to the great Squaresoft.