Simple and Clean is probably the best way to describe this game. Before you needed to play 15 different games to understand why everyone is Xehanort, it all started with a boy forced to embark on a journey to other worlds with Donald & Goofy in order to find his friends. It had a simple, easy-to-understand story.
Gameplay-wise, its a little bit rough around the edges compared to future titles but it still holds up pretty well. There are a wide variety of spells and abilities that are useful in some way, shape, or form throughout the game and they're all fun to use. The biggest problem I have which is exclusive to this version of the game is that in order to use abilities, you have to scroll down the menu as opposed to just being able to press the triangle button reaction command style like you can in the remaster. This makes fighting Dark Riku extra frustrating as you can easily die if you do not have fast enough reaction skills. The other big issue is you CANNOT skip cutscenes in this version of the game. This inconvenience also adds even more insult to injury when you die against Dark Riku or any other somewhat difficult boss.
The difficulty in this game is the fairest it has also ever been in a KH game. A lot of the future entries are typically a bit on the easy side, but this game has its challenging parts that are very satisfying once you finally beat them. These challenging parts in the game usually come at the perfect time when you will be incentivized to grind a little or develop a better strategy for defeating enemies or bosses.
The worlds in this game were all good choices and they all have a level of interactivity you don't get when playing future games in the series. Riding that dolphin in Atlantica, that mini game where you slide on that tree with Tarzan in Deep Jungle, or being able to light the big candles in Wonderland add that small bit of immersion and attention to detail to them that comes a long way. Exploring Halloween Town, Atlantica, Deep Jungle, Hollow Bastion, and even Traverse Town was just a blast to experience and I wish I could re-experience it all again for the first time.
The last aspect I can give this game props for is that it somehow was able to make the Final Fantasy aspect of this crossover work. Every Final Fantasy character in this game was implemented in a way where it felt natural to see them and make them relevant to the plot. The same goes with a lot of the Disney characters as well. The characters from the Disney worlds also have relevance to the story of the game and Maleficent & her other Disney goons were solid villains for this game.
Playing through this game for the first time was just a magical experience and I always have a good time when I revisit this game. This game easily takes the cake for being my favorite game of all time and if you have a Ps2, Ps3, or any modern console then you absolutely need to play this game.
Gameplay-wise, its a little bit rough around the edges compared to future titles but it still holds up pretty well. There are a wide variety of spells and abilities that are useful in some way, shape, or form throughout the game and they're all fun to use. The biggest problem I have which is exclusive to this version of the game is that in order to use abilities, you have to scroll down the menu as opposed to just being able to press the triangle button reaction command style like you can in the remaster. This makes fighting Dark Riku extra frustrating as you can easily die if you do not have fast enough reaction skills. The other big issue is you CANNOT skip cutscenes in this version of the game. This inconvenience also adds even more insult to injury when you die against Dark Riku or any other somewhat difficult boss.
The difficulty in this game is the fairest it has also ever been in a KH game. A lot of the future entries are typically a bit on the easy side, but this game has its challenging parts that are very satisfying once you finally beat them. These challenging parts in the game usually come at the perfect time when you will be incentivized to grind a little or develop a better strategy for defeating enemies or bosses.
The worlds in this game were all good choices and they all have a level of interactivity you don't get when playing future games in the series. Riding that dolphin in Atlantica, that mini game where you slide on that tree with Tarzan in Deep Jungle, or being able to light the big candles in Wonderland add that small bit of immersion and attention to detail to them that comes a long way. Exploring Halloween Town, Atlantica, Deep Jungle, Hollow Bastion, and even Traverse Town was just a blast to experience and I wish I could re-experience it all again for the first time.
The last aspect I can give this game props for is that it somehow was able to make the Final Fantasy aspect of this crossover work. Every Final Fantasy character in this game was implemented in a way where it felt natural to see them and make them relevant to the plot. The same goes with a lot of the Disney characters as well. The characters from the Disney worlds also have relevance to the story of the game and Maleficent & her other Disney goons were solid villains for this game.
Playing through this game for the first time was just a magical experience and I always have a good time when I revisit this game. This game easily takes the cake for being my favorite game of all time and if you have a Ps2, Ps3, or any modern console then you absolutely need to play this game.