Estou jogando essa franquia pela primeira vez e esse jogo é um início muito promissor. Por mais que a premissa seja bizarra o negócio até que flui bem, só acho que os personagens da Disney poderiam fazer mais do que só repetir os plots dos filmes (tirando o Fera e a Malévola, esses 2 são pika) e os de Final Fantasy poderiam fazer qualquer coisa a mais, já que não servem pra nada. O plot é simples, mas funciona, só é bem imbecil as vezes. O gameplay é muito surpreendente para a época, principalmente de um jogo pré-DMC3, mesmo que seja um tanto travado e o menu de comandos encaixa muito bem. Minhas únicas críticas são o fato de não poder cancelar animações de ataque e as habilidades serem ligadas à posição do inimigo também incomoda bastante. Mas o pior mesmo são as partes que vc tem que voar ou nadar, isso sim ficou uma bosta.
Em geral um jogo muito bom, mas que deixa a desejar em muitos aspectos.

wow.. that was so.. i'm amazed. i never knew kingdom hearts was like that. i gave up at tarzan when i was younger .. wow i was missing out.

that was an incredibly difficult game, even as an adult. the literal 4-5 hours of boss rushes at the end is just wild. all my chatters were saying they stayed up all night to finish it as kids.. & so did i, at my old age. :\

but wow.. something about it just felt like a nice warm hug. i'm glad i did play it older so i could understand the story going on. it was such a special little story & i'm glad i finally came around to playing it. excited to start my journey into the others :)

By mistake I played this one after KH2 so sadly my opinion is skewed. This game is great, don't even doubt that for a moment. However, it shows age in some parts of it. The HD collections largely work to fix this, specifically with menuing, so it is still very beginner friendly.

The amount of times I hear "There's no way you're taking Kairi's Heart" per playthrough is mind-numbing but that entire scene has such impact. It's the pivotal moment when Sora accepts his role as the Keyblade Master (oh you poor sweet summer child) and does the right thing.

My review for Kingdom Hearts 1 is actually going to be making points on why this game is vastly superior to the sequel, which I never realized was a controversial opinion until I looked at ratings and reviews online. I’ve yet to be convinced by a single person explaining their preference for KH2. People are free to have their own opinions and taste, but I just can’t for the life of me understand how it’s the common sentiment. After playing 2 for the third time nearly 20 years from its release, I still feel 1 is a much stronger game in every way.

Story - “The story is simple” is a common phrase you’ll see when describing this game. I don’t think that’s a negative thing to be able to follow the story clearly and not be confused by names and terminology that the sequel throws at you and poorly explains. Kh1 is a beautiful and emotional story that really makes you feel attached to these characters and the cut scenes are utilized perfectly to explain motivations and progression and main story events. I actually really like the prologue of 2 though.

Gameplay - the battle system is described as slow or clunky by some..I’ve even read the platforming elements aren’t well done. I prefer this battle system by far to the sequel for the pace, the boss fights and heartless that you have to use strategy in a really fun well thought out way. The sequel takes the fun out and adds reaction triangle button commands and relies on that far too much. I also really disliked the MP system change, 1 was a lot more sensible in earning mp with attacking. Using Cure once draining your entire MP I feel is an odd choice. I also see the platforming in 1 as evidence of it’s better level design. The heartless are all very original in this game and have unique and fun patterns that can be challenging to play against, in 2 I found the heartless obnoxious and a bit boring.

Worlds - The worlds of kingdom hearts 1 are so much fun and mix Disney classics and add depth to it with Sora, Donald and Goofy being thrown into the mix. You always feel like youre going on an adventure but the mystery of finding your friends is still your main goal. In 2 the worlds are half baked plot points from the movies without much creativity added. Traverse town is a much better safe point than Hollow Bastion in 2. Even the new worlds I liked in the sequel are not fully realized such as “the world that never was” and “Timeless River.” I will admit Atlantica is a lot more fun in 2 though.

Keyblade design - this is obviously a nitpicky aesthetic thing but it applies to a lot of other visual ideas that 1 just does much better. The keyblades are cooler and classic looking. 2 has a few I like but overall are disappointing.

I could add many more reasons why I love the first game more including score, voice actors, dialogue. Kingdom hearts 1 at the end of the the day is one of my favorite games and I hope as I finally play through the franchise I find some more to love.

91

I played this one on expert mode and this is the most fun I have had with a game in a while.

Aside from the annoyance of unskippable cutscenes, there is very little majorly wrong with this game, and the reviews here saying that the game is "janky" and has "aged poorly" ring false in my ears.

The story is simple, but there are enough interesting plot threads and progressions here to keep things engaging. The game also goes through its perfect roster of worlds at such a brisk pace to where it was impossible for me to lose interest. To be honest though, the combat and side content were more than enough to keep me engaged. I understand to a small extent why some people would label the combat as "janky", but aside from a couple annoying bosses and moments everything here feels tight and punchy. There are a perfect amount of abilities and spells to play around with, and almost all of them feel useful. There are many challenging moments sprinkled throughout this game, but none of them felt like the difficulty was due to poor design choices. As long as I consistently dodged and parried, strategized well, and engaged with most of the side content, the game was smooth sailing. The game forcing me to do the side content would be a problem, if it wasn't for how much fun it is. colosseum fights, collecting secret items, and hidden bosses all feel fun to do and the game never makes these side quests outstay their welcome.

Couple more things I wanted to add at the end here. First, the party A.I. is garbage for anything other than healing, but your main playable character more than makes up for them, and having your party members heal you and serve as meat shields definitely come in clutch multiple times. The A.I. being bad is unfortunate, but it is barely a problem. Second, gummi ships are annoying, however, these sections are really easy and after a certain point you can skip most of these sections entirely. This makes gummi ships more of a minor inconvenience rather than a major problem.

I played it near release at an age where I could be considered the target-demographic of Disney, but also as someone completely unfamiliar with the works of SquareSoft/Square Enix. I'll be reviewing it now though under the lens of how I currently evaluate games, not my initial experience.

Combat is front and center here even though the director cites Mario 64 as an influence. It doesn't feature the magnetic-pull of later entries in the series, and attacks only move you forward slightly. The onus is on the player to space attacks correctly. The i-frames on the dodge-roll are slight. Even though advanced players can find a use for it on certain attacks, its primary use for most will be as a positioning tool. The guard has a startup-lag, and will only block attacks head-on. Encounters are not designed around these defensive options, and not all successful guards net the player anything really. You also can't interrupt attacks by guarding, so you'll be funneled into a defensive playstyle if you try to make use of it. The combat is supplemented with defensive tools (defense-buffs, healing from items or other resources) that let you tank everything. It's not that there are no tests of strategy and dexterity in the game, but the ones present are usually simplistic.

The rest of the game is mild exploration through each "world" that consists of a few rooms. Some items are out of reach until newer abilities are unlocked, and then backtracking is required.

There's about 5-10 hours of content depending on your competency.

I do try to frame reviews through a first-time experience. This is essentially a high-budget B action-game, which is strange to think about. The polish of its presentation and animation-quality exceeded everything else the year of its release aside from Resident Evil 2002 which was using pre-rendered backgrounds as a crutch.

Unless the aesthetics really grate, the game is strange enough that I think most people might get through a run of it. It is dangerously teetering on that line though, and those more like me would put it down early because it isn't worth playing aside from the uncanny strangeness of these Square RPG anime-people running around spreading their conflict over Disney films.

It's kinda funny to use a superlative like this on a mediocre score, but I'd give it a 'strong' 1.5/5. Bump that to a 2/5 if you're slightly less picky.