This review contains spoilers

A pretty fun time in spite of being a little rough at times. Combat in Kingdom Hearts is pretty fun and is easy to get the hang of, but has enough depth to it to make it interesting. The different Keyblades you can obtain throughout the journey and the various you learn add a lot of customization to KH1 to help keep it fresh. Most of the levels are fun to go through as well and do a good job of representing the movies they come from. My favorites being Agrabah, Deep Jungle, and Hollow Bastion. I felt the story was mostly pretty good, though dialogue could get a little repetitive at times. I want to specifically focus on Sora and Riku when discussing writing as I think their relationship throughout the game is done well. With the two starting as friends before slowly drifting apart and ending up on opposite sides of the conflict. I think the conflict in their friendship peaks during the first Hollow Bastion visit, where Riku fully embraces the darkness and takes the Keyblade from Sora. In spite of this, Sora still cares for Riku and that care ultimately leads to the two being able to work together to close Kingdom Hearts. Sora in general is a character I enjoyed, as he always managed to stay positive despite everything he goes through in the story. I'd be remiss to talk about this game without mentioning the stellar soundtrack, which has a great selection of music for both the game's various worlds and fights. My favorites were the Neverland sky theme and the combat theme in the final world. My main criticisms towards this game lie with it's bosses being a somewhat mixed bag, with Ursula, Genie Jafar, and Ansem's 3rd phase being notable lowloints, and the underwater and flight segments messing with the combat at points. Regardless, I still really like this game and can see myself going back for it's post game content.

Reviewed on Jan 19, 2023


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