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It’d be pretty safe to say that I can speak for all Final Fantasy fans when I say I was nervous about the release of the PlayStation 2 title, Kingdom Hearts. Square Enix’s claim to fame is probably the deep, intricate and meaningful storylines that its games offer, so with this in mind you can pretty much say that Disney’s cartoons and movies are the polar opposite of the Final Fantasy series – combining two polar opposites surely only spells one thing, failure right?

Wrong. Kingdom Hearts offers everything you can expect from a Final Fantasy game, with a touch of Disney. Kingdom Hearts tells the story of a totally new character, Sora. Sora and his friends, Riku and Kairi live a normal life on an island called Destiny Islands. Haunted by strange dreams, Sora decides it’s time for him to discover what life offers beyond Destiny Islands; and it’s with this in mind that he decides to build a raft with his two friends.

However, Sora doesn’t actually get the chance to ever use the raft as his island is engulfed in a mysterious darkness known as the Heartless. After the attack Sora awakes in a Transverse Town, a world much different from his own – it’s here that he meets Donald and Goofy, the duo are searching for the one who holds the Keyblade, and the one that holds the Keyblade just so happens to be Sora.

As the story unravels we see many things that are present in Final Fantasy titles, such as the struggle between good and evil; and a hero who is searching for his lost love ones. Despite the Disney element that’s added to the storyline, Kingdom Hearts has a deep, engaging storyline that rivals any Final Fantasy game out there.

Kingdom Hearts also excels in the game play department, Kingdom Hearts has an Action RPG style battle system similar to that of titles such as The Legend of Zelda. The battle system still offers many things that are present in the Final Fantasy series, such as spells and their evolutions (Fira, Fira, and Firaga) as well as the classic Experience/Levelling system that we’ve seen in every Final Fantasy title to date. Kingdom Hearts’ battle system has a few issues, such as the awkward camera at times however on the whole it’s a pretty solid battle system.

One of Kingdom Hearts’ strongest points is its graphics, Kingdom Hearts in game visuals are truly outstanding – it’s just a shame that we didn’t get to see more pre-rendered video sequences.

To conclude, Kingdom Hearts really has got a lot to offer anyone who’s willing to give it ago – when I say it has a lot to offer, I literally mean this; it’ll take you at least 35 hours to complete the main storyline. That’s ignoring the dozens of side quests that Kingdom Hearts offers. Other than the camera during battles, I really can’t find anything to complain about with this game and recommend it to anyone who owns a PlayStation 2 console.

Rating: 8.5/10