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)
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)