Even if later games in the series are improvements over the concepts first laid out in Kingdom Hearts, the first game will always be special to me. It felt like a game tailor-made for my particular brand of weird as a young teen and now, as an adult, I still smile through all of the cutscenes, like I'm greeting old friends after a long time away.

This was my first time playing the Final Mix version, and I largely consider this version to be a downgrade in comparison to the original NA/EU release. There are many new "gimmick" Heartless introduced that have specific conditions attached to them, and they all have an exclusive drop item that will only drop if those conditions are met perfectly. This on its own wouldn't necessarily be bad, but the Synthesis system has been retooled to require these items for at least one recipe at every group level. This was the point where I decided I wouldn't 100% this version of the game. (I did do enough to get the Special Secret though.)

I'm also just picky about the Heartless color palette swap. Not a fan! But it's pretty minor overall, except for that infamous Trickmaster recolor.

And yet...it's still pretty much the same game, with the same flaws as before. It's still, mostly, how I remember it twenty years ago. And I still love it so much.

Even if later games in the series are improvements over the concepts first laid out in Kingdom Hearts, the first game will always be special to me. It felt like a game tailor-made for my particular brand of weird as a young teen and now, as an adult, I still smile through all of the cutscenes, like I'm greeting old friends after a long time away.

This was my first time playing the Final Mix version, and I largely consider this version to be a downgrade in comparison to the original NA/EU release. There are many new "gimmick" Heartless introduced that have specific conditions attached to them, and they all have an exclusive drop item that will only drop if those conditions are met perfectly. This on its own wouldn't necessarily be bad, but the Synthesis system has been retooled to require these items for at least one recipe at every group level. This was the point where I decided I wouldn't 100% this version of the game. (I did do enough to get the Special Secret though.)

I'm also just picky about the Heartless color palette swap. Not a fan! But it's pretty minor overall, except for that infamous Trickmaster recolor.

And yet...it's still pretty much the same game, with the same flaws as before. It's still, mostly, how I remember it twenty years ago. And I still love it so much.