This is far from the first time I've beaten this game, but what started as a quick jaunt to show a friend the opening hours quickly spiraled into a near 100% playthrough (I only say near because I can't be bothered to finish everything in Jiminy's Journal) and, well, here I am 30 hours later. Every time I come back to this game I worry that I will encounter some revelation that this game has aged poorly or that it was never as good as I remembered it- so I'm pleased to report that Kingdom Hearts is just as fun, endearing, and sincerely entertaining as it was 20 years ago.

The game isn't perfect, some of the encounters have questionable difficulty spikes, or moves with hitboxes that are a bit suspect on higher difficulties, and a lot of the meaningful side-content is kept from you until you're right at the end of the game. That being said, however, the core combat/exploration mechanics and the Goofy (ha) but emotionally investing and generally fun story punch well above their weight. I don't think I even have to mention how much weight Yoko Shimomura's God-tier soundtrack pulls for what would be otherwise completely incomprehensible story beats.

In this playthrough, now having much more experience with the Action RPG genre, I developed a new appreciation for the general freedom and looseness that Kingdom Hearts provides to the player, especially with the movement system's verticality, given the emphasis on platforming this game holds over the rest of the series. No other game I can think of feels quite like KH1, even within the same series, and I really appreciate it. In previous playthroughs I never really gave the magic system much thought, but this time around I really got a taste of how powerful a magic build can be, and made this revisit feel very fresh.

I love this game dearly, and I cannot wait to revisit it in a few years to see how my perspective has changed. More importantly, however, I am stoked to revisit the sequel, as if Kingdom Hearts has maintained its quality well with age, Kingdom Hearts 2 has only gotten better as time has gone on.

(Edit: I literally removed like half a sentence and didn't properly edit it? lmao)

I think this is another example of how amazing the PlayStation 2 was for the time. The PS2 was not only a commercial success but provided a much needed spark for what would become a market bursting at the seams with deeply ambitious projects, full of wonder and whimsy, only limited by hardware limitations and occasional executive meddling. The fact a game from 2002 was able to have such an engaging combat system alongside beautiful world design and hours upon hours of side content is something I didn’t expect, but here we are!!

To this day there's a lot I still don't like about this game. The combat can be clunky (especially early on), the Disney worlds present these lackluster abridged versions of their respective movies, boss fights range from super easy to excruciatingly annoying with no consistency to the difficulty, the gummi ship straight up sucks, and navigating some of these worlds can feel completely aimless at times if you don't know exactly where to go or what to do. There were instances where I considered dropping my score to three stars during this playthrough, like that second phase of the Ansem fight. Seriously fuck that shit.

But with that being said, despite its many flaws I still love this game to pieces. I think that largely has to do with the music and atmosphere, both of which Kingdom Hearts excels at with flying colours. Presentation as a whole is stellar across the board and the Final Mix version makes an already beautiful game look even better. The Traverse Town theme is etched deep in my brain and whenever I hear it it's like I'm being transported back in time. And I never owned a PS2; I only ever played it at a friend's house as a kid and never saw past the Tarzan world. It wasn't until I was well into my twenties that I finally experienced the game front to back. So there definitely is some nostalgia playing a part in my enjoyment, and I can totally understand someone jumping into this for the first time today and just finding it painful. Aspects of the story aren't thoroughly fleshed-out but it is deceptively simple; these were the days before this series became a narrative clusterfuck. There's no keyblade war, or nobodies, or clones, or power vacuums, or anything of the sort...it's just a kid searching for his friends while encountering some colourful characters along the way.

I've always loved Disney animation but I've long been hesitant to dive deep into this series as a whole. This is the only KH entry I've completed and now I intend to change that. I absolutely hated Chain of Memories when I played it on PS4 some years ago, but now that I finally have this collection on Series X I'm very eager to just skip that one and jump right into Kingdom Hearts II. I've heard great things.

It's a classic hero's journey kind of deal wrapped up in a pretty solid action RPG with some weird platforming. The story isn't nearly as insane as it would get in later games (KH basically turning into a vessel for wild anime fights definitely has its own charm, though) and the Disney worlds don't feel nearly as pointless as they do in later games since Sora's experiences in them all help him grow from a kid who kind of fell into wielding the Keyblade into being a real hero. The music is phenomenal as it is for the whole series, and the game struck a pretty okay balance between Final Fantasy influence and being its own thing.

(PC - ☠️)

What i Liked :
- for the debut of the series, it does almost everything so well, its an amazing game that i've never finished as a kid but recently beaten faster than i could before. excelent starter.

- the music is OST on the phone worthy and some will stay with you for good.

-the story can be goofy (heh) at times and thats its charm really, its a cynical yet bealtiful tale of optimism even in the darkest of times, not everything goes well, in fact a lot goes bad, but the characters keep pushing on.

- OH GOD THE ENDING...sob..

- sora is a good boy.

- the opening is GUD, tho i prefer the one from KH 2

- Riku is a good jelly boy.

- for today's standarts (the series are devil may cry worthy at this point) its very rusty, but you can get the hang of it, and for a debut its very solid, the progression is tied to sora's development, so it checks out. by the end you won't be as fluid as say, KH2 sora, but you will still feel pretty powerful

- everything is so sparkly, played on the pc remaster, everything has so many cute particles its adorable

- kairi is gud girl

- i love that there is a clear option for harder secret bosses, i like that they are there, but i just won't do them, im a busy person.

What i Don't like :
- combat is rusty, boy you will feel its age during the most tense of combats

- can we delete tarzan level on the next remaster ?

- (spoiler) Riku please don't be so passive agressive.

- the menu system, shit feels oooold once you try the newer entries.

- NO MAP

- last level is longer than 2 worlds combined, you will think you are almost over when suddenly, surprise new area and surprise ambush.

- the best skills are unlocked at the end of the game ?

- gummi ship is underused in this one

The first opus of one of Square Enix's most famous franchises, Kingdom Hearts FINAL MIX, in its remastered version for PC, is a particularly strong disappointment. The public, despite the effects of nostalgia, agrees on the structural and technical problems of the title, since its original release. The camera is one of the title's most notable flaws and exacerbates other weaknesses, such as the combat system and its rigidity. On the other hand, the remaster is a rare indecency, as it does not correct any of these problems. Its interest is supposedly an HD upscale of the title and a 60 FPS framerate, but this hardly hides the misery of the art direction, which is even more glaring. Worse, the high definition makes the lack of lip movement and other concessions that could be accepted in the PS2 era laughable. Generally speaking, the title retains all its archaisms. They are legion: beyond the graphics and the combat system, the writing remains particularly cryptic and mediocre, struggling to interest the player or even to properly mobilise the borrowed worlds. Apart from Winnie the Pooh, the different worlds are not very interesting, especially as they summarise the events of the various Disney films at lightning speed, in a sort of detestable fan service. Similarly, the use of Final Fantasy characters is pure cameo and doesn't seem to make any sense. It is this impression of futility that comes out of the whole title. This one tries to be varied, to mix genres that don't usually cohabit well together (action-RPG, platformer, shoot'em up, various mini-games), but doesn't excel in any of them. One would be hard pressed to find a gameplay element that works at all. The combat system is abysmally poor and the balancing doesn't help the title stand out, so it has no choice but to multiply the number of enemies to try and bring some dynamism; yet the floating targetting can't handle that many enemies. The platforming is not helped by the camera, nor by the particularly limited jumping palette. The gummi-ship sequences are miserable and the customisation system is one of the most unreadable in this medium. This is without counting on the aberration of the controller setup, which places buttons in a completely illogical way (in flight, Y to descend and B to climb). The problems multiply and you come out with few positive remarks. Some sequences are not too unpleasant, but the veteran player will find much better elsewhere. It's hard to recommend this title to anyone and the nostalgia goggles wouldn't even seem to be enough to bring salvation to Kingdom Hearts.

So, I finally got around to the one that started it all, the grandaddy of one of the most famous franchises. The music is great, the characters are fun, and it's neat to see Disney and Final Fantasy characters interacting in the same world. I could definitely see young me loving this one. However, there are plenty of flaws with this one. The level design is rough, the encounter rate is unreal, and the potentially exciting combat is marred by atrocious camera controls. A new coat of paint in the Final Mix don't fix that camera.

I'm interested in seeing what else the series has to offer, but for now I'm marking this as a promisingly bumpy start.

I was really divided about what to rate this game.
It's been over a year since I have played this game for the first time, but I must say it has grown on me pretty quickly. The characters are quite quirky and the story is... weird. I don't know what else to describe it.

I do like the main cast of characters, Sora, Donald and Goofy play off each other very nicely and make for some fun moments. Goofy is MVP though.

I would have rated this at least 4 stars, maybe 4.5, but I just have to point out what glaring issues it has. Sure, the game came out in 2002 originally, but man, the level design in some worlds are just abysmal (I'm looking at you, Tarzan...). I love some worlds, hate others and most are fine.

The gameplay is pretty clunky and Sora isn't the smoothest to control, but you get over that after a few hours of gameplay.

So I have to give this a 3.5. I still kinda love this game but there are some clear design flaws.

I often found Kingdom Hearts to be a somewhat janky game, a bit of a clunker that I kept getting told to stick with as the series continues to get better and better after this game.

I'm glad I took that advice. Although at times I felt confused, alienated and frustrated, the experience as a whole was enjoyable and intriguing enough to stick with it through the bits that tested my patience, and I ended up being really fascinated by it the more I played.

Looking forward to trying future entries in the series and seeing how the story progresses from here.

(Added content & QOL improvements are welcome, but the original issues still exist as described below)

Before there was the mess that Kingdom Hearts has become today, there was this game. The store is a simple good vs. evil story, & ironically enough plays out like a typical Disney movie. The main cast is charming & the game oozes personality throughout it's music & visuals. While all of this sounds great on paper, unfortunatley in practice the gameplay shows it's age hard. Like many late 90's & Y2K 3D games, the platforming is very rough and the camera system gets in the way many times. This especially becomes a pain during horde encounter & boss fights when you're trying to time your dodges & blocks. If you want to get through this game do so on a lower difficulty so you don't get pissed at the jank, if you're looking for a challenege the gameplay in future titles is much better.