I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately… Like is any of this for real… Or not?
I don’t know why I did it, but last month I purchased the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 bundle. Since then it’s taken over my gaming life, its all I’ve been playing – and I’ve been having a lot of fun! I was really worried that these games would not hold up to the fond memories I have of them. (I’ve written about my fondness for KH before – see my Throwback Thursday post for more nostalgia musings.)
I thought it would be a nice way to revisit these games 17 years (!) after the first release by discussing the good (and the not so good) here. How well do these games hold up today? I’ll start with Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix and probably later move on to the others in the series, I’m sure enviably finding my way to KH3.
Kingdom Hearts 1
Out of all the KH games, this is the one I have played the most – I was surprised that I still knew many of the lines to prominent cut scenes. I think it is a pretty iconic game, and actually manages to toe the line between original narrative and convoluted, over-the-top narrative much better then some of the others in the series do. The story line is fairly straight forward, which I was quite surprised about. My memories of the series’ overall narrative was quite messy, and it was very refreshing to realise that this doesn’t apply to the first game.
The important characters of this game are also relatively small compared to later entries. The main party consists of Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy who are looking for their friends Kairi, Riku and Mickey Mouse. They are up against main antagonists Ansem, Maleficent and the council of evil Disney villains. So far, so easy!
Narrative Rating: 4/5 Crowns – relatively straightforward good vs evil plot line. No wiki needed.
The theme of friendship, which runs strong throughout the whole series, is pretty strong in this game. The main motivation for the main characters is to find their lost friends, and in their darkest moments they are powered by the love they have for each other. It can be a bit cringey at times and the dialogue is quite childish in its expression of this, but it is in keeping with the genre of JRPGs and Disney movies.
Sora spends most of the game chasing after Kairi and Riku, who you have surprisingly little on screen time with (if you’re not counting possessed Riku). Similarly despite spending a lot of time with Donald and Goofy there is little scenes actually building up the dynamic and friendship between everyone
Friendship: 3/5 Hearts – Friendship is the most important thing in this universe, whether you like it or not.
There are 13 worlds that you visit throughout KH1, many of which become mainstays of the series. For this reason you could argue that some are as iconic as the keyblade – for example, Destiny Islands and Olympus Coliseum are tied to the idea of KH games.
Many of the worlds, especially the original worlds (Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion) are interesting and exciting to explore. However many of the Disney worlds feel small and empty. Playing through them often consists of running between one end of the map to the other to trigger cutscenes. As a player the experience can feel quite hollow – although it is worth noting we are talking about Playstation 2 games and so they will of course be smaller than current games. But compared to KH2 we can see that the PS2 limitations are not entirely to blame here.
Worlds: 2.5/5 Keyholes – Enough variety to satisfy newcomers to the series, but small level design means they fly by too quickly.
That’s the world’s level design themselves, but what about the specific use of third party characters (namely Disney and Final Fantasy)? On the Final Fantasy side KH1 mainly uses characters from FFVII, with additional cameos from Squall & Selphie (FFVIII) and Moogles (various FFs). The Final Fantasy characters play their part mainly in the beginning of the game, being vessels for narrative explanations. Some have costume redesigns, the best being Cloud, who I honestly believe has never looked better.
The Disney characters stay pretty true to their canonical designs and characterisations. Most of the Disney words you visit follow their movie plots, just with the insertion of Sora and co. This can become tedious after a while but is still fairly fresh in KH1.
Disney: 3/5 Mickey Mouses – FF characters feel integrated and the Disney trope is new enough to feel interesting.
Olympus Coliseum becomes a mainstay of the series, so I thought when comparing the various titles in the series it would be worth including Olympus specifically. In KH1 all there is to this world is just the coliseum and its various tournaments. It’s a fun thing to revisit throughout the game and test your mastery of the keyblade. While theres not much to it in comparison to later games, it is the foundation all other incarnations are built on.
The Games: 2.5/5 Hydra Heads – A solid start that will be built on in later entries
Combat in KH1 is a lot easier than I remembered it being, although this may be due to my lack of strategic playing when I was younger. I found I only died during the later series of boss battles. However, it is generally enjoyable and straightforward – I personally made a lot of use of dodge rolls and parrying to make my way to the end of the game.
I remembered when I originally played KH1 I made heavy use of the magic system but this time round I barely used anything but Areo and Cure. I think this does show that there are different play styles that can be used, although I can’t speak for which ones, if any, are more viable than others.
I also barely used any summons this play through – only summoning Tinkerbell once. To be honest I totally forgot this mechanic existed, which maybe says something about how necessary it really is.
Combat: 3/5 Keyblades – good, sturdy and reliable.
Following on from this I was a little underwhelmed by the boss battles in KH1 as I didn’t have too much difficulty with most of them, and they rarely required any change of my battle tactics. In fact, some of them were disappointingly easy. (Note: I played on standard difficulty.)
The hardest battles (barring the optional boss battles) where those towards the end of the game – the series staple of having a multi-form end boss – in this case the many faces of Ansem.
There are other cool bosses in this game, my memorable favourites being Chernabog and Darkside. Although these are mostly memorable for their aesthetic and atmosphere rather than inducing the sweaty palms and beating hearts that a good boss battle should.
Some bosses were less than cool and even felt a bit out of place. These were most noticeable in worlds which didn’t have a prominent Disney villain. For example Deep Jungle’s Stealth Sneak and Monstro’s Parasite Cage.
Boss Battles: 2.5/5 Heartless – Some cool battles and stages, but quite a few less memorable bosses chucked in too
We’ve covered the worlds, and their end of level bosses, but what about travelling between worlds? And so we turn to the gummi ship – a mechanic a hated when I first played this game. On my most recent replay I didn’t find these sections as difficult as I had previously. However I didn’t find much more to them than holding down the shoot button and staying away from obstacles. Despite not minding these sections, I certainly felt no desire to replay any of them.
Gummi Ship: 2.5/5 Stars – Exactly middle of the road not much to hate, but not much to like either
The music to KH has become iconic in itself, so I think it’s worth a look at. The main theme provided by Hikaru Utada is ‘Simple and Clean’, and in my opinion, it may be the best in the series.
KH1 also gave us ‘Dearly Beloved’, the music used in the title screen which will be remixed for every KH game. Again, its original incarnation is one of the best – the calm simplicity of it, with the relaxing waves in the background – brilliant.
Other pieces of music for the KH original words are pretty memorable too, especially Twilight Town and Hollow Bastion.
Music: 4/5 Hikaru Utadas – KH1 laid some really strong foundations that have shaped the whole series.
Here’s some space for me to talk about something that is really prevalent in the KH1 experience: platforming and the camera. Even though the worlds are small, the game does encourage exploration to find hidden chests and trinity marks. Platforming tends to be the main way to find these secrets and encourages you to revisit worlds as you unlock more movement and trinity abilities.
However my main complaint with this game is the camera. Maybe this is just what games of the era were like and I don’t remember, but I found the camera to be infuriating at times, and it really hindered my enjoyment of exploring certain environments. The pirate ship in Neverland was the worst for me – the camera physically interacts with the walls in the environment. Which is to say it doesn’t clip through them, but instead bounces off them. In a small confined space like the pirate ship, this meant I couldn’t see what I was doing a lot of the time. I found despite having the camera set to manual, it did what it wanted half the time. Which was still much better than setting the camera to auto, which I did at the start of the game, and it cost me the race against Riku. I really, really hated the camera in this game.
‘Other’: 2/5 Trinity Marks – Honestly f— that camera.
Although my heart may be weak, it’s not alone. It’s grown with each new experience. And it’s found a home with all the friends I’ve made. I’ve become a part of their heart, just as they’ve become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then, if they don’t forget me, then our hearts will be one… My friends are my power!
Sora on friendship and the legacy of KH1
Overall, I still like KH1 – I think it’s a pretty solid game of its era and is still quite enjoyable to play. It is not the best game in the series, but it’s also not the worst. the play time is pretty digestible compared to other (J)RPGs, so I think that makes a lot of the negatives somewhat forgivable, as you don’t have to deal with them for 100 hours. I would recommend this game to anyone who has played it before, and anyone looking to dip their toes into the series.
Fionn Plays 