Alright, now I'm sure this may not roll over well with most of you, given that you're either sony fanboys, jerk off to FF, or like to play RPG's that have disney characters... But I want to know what the freakin' big deal is about the series Kingdom Hearts.

From what I've seen of it it looks like a little kids game, I've seen a few movies ( never any gameplay ) images, etc... And from what I see it looks to be like wonderful afternoon on the disney channel crossing Final Fantasy 7.

This game and the sequel have over a 9 point rating on just about any review site, including the IMDB, and I want to freakin' know why.

So please, convince me as to why this is such a wonderful and classic series and deserves to have sequels, and not to mention fans that are in their teens and beyond. Prove to me that my blind assumptions are incorrect.

Also please tell me how it's not aimed at 10 year olds.

I'm not trying to start any fights, so please don't waste your time getting pissy at any of the above statements I've made. These are the assumptions that I've made, I want to know if I'm wrong and if that's the case, how I am wrong.

Thank you and good night.

Well, I guess you could say it's both.
We're the generation that grew up with Fantasia, Lion King, Alladin, Little Mermaid etc. And those things are nostalgic in ways that a 10 year old who grew up with Digimon and Pokemon won't be able to appreciate. They'll probably have fun with the Disney worlds, but perhaps won't see them in the same way we do, and remember.
There's also Nightmare before Christmas, Pirates of the Caribian, Tron, etc. And it's not all as un serious as it may seem, even when it comes to some of the Disney worlds.

Kingdom Hearts has two sides to it. One is the Disney aspect, and the other is a more darker and serious story. Though they are integrated with eachother, this becomes much more of a central theme in the second and third game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nayItN4vsPo

Check out this video. First time I saw it, I thought it looked more like Devil May Cry than "Kingdom Hearts".
The complexity of the story in KH 2 is definitely not something that can be grasped by a 10 year old. But the first game is pretty open on both ends.

But no matter what age you are, it's not for everyone though.

This is the key factor. I agree at what Hiku said, and you, since you only seen movies, images, etc, and didn't play or no anything of the story, you onl scratch the surface of this game, you look at it in a very superfical way.

One must play the game in order to understand that it isn't a game for just kids, and as hiku said, and i agree, a 10 year old wouldn't understand very well the story of KH II.

I like this game because I don't have to deal with slutty girl characters. I like this game because I don't have to deal with a hero who tries too hard to be understood. He doesn't whine about how he's got powers he doesn't feel he knows how to use, nor is he overly arrogant, sly or whatnot. He just does what he has to do because he can. I like the disney characters. They're cute. The fact that they try to put in a storyline with a slight complexity to it is great - it's also great that my sister's kids can watch and play this game and be well-entertained. There are so many crappy games out there for kids - makes me feel bad.

It's marketed to a broad audience. Hiku explained how. However, if you want a game with sex, gore, and massive, bloody violence and all that....this wouldn't be your game to play, suffice it to say. This game just has the bare essentials of a game and it's popular because it works REALLY well. It has mini-games, fighting, a fairly decent story, characters people recognize and/or get eager/curious to see, nice music and pretty graphics. It's got nice content - it does look a bit childish and at first I didn't want to play it either, but if you take a liking to the storyline and find the gameplay agreeable...then odds are you'll like playing through it to the end. There's no telling you how to feel about the game without setting you down and asking you to play it yourself, though. A concept I never understood was when people would request others to 'convince' them to try such-and-such - that's a very hard thing to do without saying, "Well, why don't you try it?" =\ And I'm pretty sure you don't want to...so...I really don't know what else to say.

I disagree on one statement that has been made, however - I think a ten year old could easily understand KH2. The games are designed to be interesting and full of twists and that's what makes it complex. Understanding the game is not that hard, though, in my honest opinion, that is.

Don't worry I used to feel the same way about the series myself. Until I was forced into playing it. I totally mistook the game.
Well first of all the gameplay is outstanding (though the first game's camera angles are bit, . . well just say they give me headaches). Unlike games likeuh lemme see . . . 50 cent bulletproof, they actually spent time working on this.The story doesn't really aim at younger generations. It just doesn't have what some adults are looking for. Say the Hot Coffee mod in GTA San Andreas. In the end the creators actually put time into both games. In my opinion some levels could have been better, but hey there are always bad parts to good games.

Well KH used psychological symbolism real well, and I like that sort of stuff. Something that probably goes over most 10 year olds heads.
But the nobodie/heartless story can be a bit complicated. I see a lot of questions about it still over at gamefaqs, and even I find a few things a bit confusing. It takes some thinking and puzzling to add up all the pieces. The 4-5 different "Ansems" for example, and their relation to each other.

it's a fanboy thing... all the pre-adolescents that played the first game went ape over the sequel. i didn't much like first game, and the second was decent but after i finished them- i ain't never gonna touch'em again.

as for the scoring- it has "Square-Enix" on the box. anything S/E spits out is aimed directly at the mainstream and the mainstream sucked it up like spaghetti... look at the 'epitome of mediocrity' Dragon Quest VIII... one of the most boring, simplified, generic games i've ever played. :mad:

Meh, whatever.

I'm only a Square fanboy to certain games, and the fact that Kingdom Hearts had FFVII, VIII, and X characters(Aeris excluded) in it turned me off, but that's to be expected since Nomura was director/character designer for KH.

I've always enjoyed Enix's stuff more than Square's.

That being said, I've played through Kingdom Hearts numerous times, because it's that good. For once, I actually liked Nomura's character designs, and they blend in very well with the Disney Worlds. The way they made that concept work just blows my mind, because on paper it's so ridiculous. It's like watching one giant, awesome Disney movie.

When KH came out, everyone I know that played it was over the age of sixteen. I had friends this past year in college, near or in their twenties give it a chance and ended up LOVING it.

The gameplay is ridiculously good, like an expansion on Zelda's gameplay to an extent, maybe even better since you have a jump button. The in-battle menu took some getting used to, and yeah, the camera was mostly crap, but if you knew what you were doing, you shouldn't have had trouble with it too much. I kept Sora in sight for the most part.

The voice actors, while being unconventional(Lance Bass as Sephiroth? Wtf, how did that actually turn out alright?) were top notch. A lot of the original Disney voice actors reprised their roles for the game. James Woods as Hades again is worth checking out alone.

The story was decently different for a Square game, even though it could've been a plot to a Care Bears movie. However, if you unlocked the hidden video "Another Side, Another Story" or watched "Deep Dive" online, you were like, "What the **** just happened and what was that about?" because it looked way darker and more mature than the game you just played, even with the inclusion of Mickey Mouse in the video.

Chain of Memories just added on to the series by introducing radical new characters and putting a twist on the card battle system that's been pretty boring for the past 3447382 years. The card battle system was a stupid concept though, since you could basically just put in the most powerful cards and rapidly tap A to win the battle. The story, however, was worth playing it for if you wanted to find out what was going on.

I've yet to play KH2 and I refuse to read anything about it, because I want to absorb the next chapter for myself. Plus, I have no cash to buy it, and really don't have the time to get into it right now. The next time I buy a game, though, it's gonna be KH2, because I've been anticipating it since the first time I played KH1.

Give it a shot, TED. Rent it at least. It may surprise you.

Lol. Clayman, you can pretty much ignore what everyone has said. The only way you'll see how good this game is, is by playing it.

Get your ass in gear and give it a bash. Playing = Believing!

Stop judging books by thier cover!

I own the first game and I've played Chain of memories. I can honestly say that I still don't get where this massive hype is coming from. I've heard so many people say that Kingdom Hearts is the best game they have ever played and that shocks me slightly.

That said, I will be buying KH2 because the first game was an enjoyable experience. It has a lot of flaws though, I can't belive people are saying how absoloutly wonderful the gameplay is... better than Zelda? Ok, so in Zelda you use your sword button a lot but the majority of Kingdom hearts is mashing the 'X' button. Gameplay mostly consists of going from screen to screen defeating random Heartless as they appear, and the random heartless can nearly always be defeated with a swift click of the auto-target and then continuous mashing of the X button. Sometimes there are some features to break up the gameplay. In The Tarzan wrld you have to swing from vines and slide down logs.

Boss battles are also quite uninspired... Hard boss battles seem to consist of avoid their attack and then mash the X button. There are times when the bosses are genuinly hard and you have to work out a patten and some stategy is involved but this is seen too little.

The storyline is good, on the first game it seems quite simplistic and very corny (There are just some lines that Sora says that makes me sick). It's basically saying that good will always prevail over evil which is ok because it IS a kids game. However, it seems that they have desperatly tried to add more layers to the second game by making it 'dark' with a complicated story structure. I can't honestly tell you how well this works but forgive me if I sound a little cynical about it.

I have been pretty harsh in this post about KH but only because I know that people will post about how amazing KH is because there seems to be so many fan boys. However, I cannot deny this game is definatly at the top end of the scale. I enjoyed it and I've played through it a couple of times (which is average for me with any game). It's not a chore to play through the game in fact, quite the opposite but don't be expected to be totally blown away by it. KH2 might be a different kettle of fish.. I can't honestly say because I don't think it is out in the UK yet.

I'd say Rent it out as well... and try to get past the first couple of hours (The first game has the worst beginning ever. It is very slow to get into anything and not a very good representation of the whole game). I've been quite cynical in my review but if you play with an open mind you may even be able to discover that you do enjoy this franchise of game. Who knows, maybe you could become on of these crazed fanboys.


No, instead he is just terribly undeveloped. I like my characters to have more to them than "I will do the right thing no matter what that involves without thinking about it and ignore any conflicts that could improve my character". Again I judge this from the first game *BIG SPOILER* When you reach Hollow Bastion and Donald and Goofy go off. He seems a bit taken back at first but then just ploughs on through the level with Beast even though he has lost his keyblade and maybe even his chance to save Kairi.*End of Spoilers*


Ack! I didn't want to know that! I didn't even want to know that Ansem had survived let alone that there was multiple Ansems.

Yeah. This game isn't as legendary as people would lead you to believe. It's a good game, but it's still got it's fair share of faults.

The main problem for me, is the difficulty. In that, there is none. However, since it's a rather long game, you can forgive that somewhat. This stems from the controls, sure you can do fancy stuff, but the majority of the game can be defeated by mashing X, just like Flame points out.

The summons too, I felt left a lot to be desired. Only one or two are actually any help, and is a waste of some good characters. Story, symbolism? Bollocks. Unless I'm incredibly dense and missing something, the story is about as complex as the average Disney movie.

Anyway, pointing out the flaws is the easist thing to do, but it has many redeeming qualities, that you should find out for yourself.

But if you like action/rpgs, you should check it out. You must have watched some Disney as a kid, Clayman, everyone I know our age has.

Precisely.

But to not make my post bare, I'll add some nonsense stuff. For the most part I think the major appeal of the game comes from the fact that it is DISNEY and SQUARE together. Seeing a new character along with some old famous Disney characters like Goofy and Donald and throw in some FF fanservice like Cloud, Squall, Seph and etc. really clicked to an enormous extent that some would even name their babies Sora and Kairi and game sales would be at the top of NPD charts for months.

See? I said nonsense hahahahahahaha -cough- ack!!! -faint-

OY! That's right - I said that too, silly Lem. I said he should play it himself, because no one should have to convince him to think one way or the other. But I tried not to cheap out on leaving it like that - he did ask a question with some degree of seriousness.............I think.



That's rather subjective. I don't really think there was much to mull over, but some people might think otherwise. To me, Sora just looked like he knew what he was doing and who could blame him? It's a Disney game with a clearly defined line between good and evil and the character seems comfortable with change, just so long as he knows what's what. Why waste time on anything else when there's other things to do? It all depends on what you think is enough given the circumstances. I don't really care for quirks and immense character detail in a game - I rather like that more in a book. But that's just me. And given it was a Disney game, you had to know and expect it was going to be sprinkled with Saturday Morning pixie dust where it looks so easy and so perfect it almost frustrates you for being so wistful. But that's what we love about Disney.

I don't know if he survived actually. Just because a character is mentioned in a game doesn't mean he or she is dead/alive. It's a past reference. And by Ansem I only meant the name. They're not the same person, or even have the same name. I just can't refer to them in any better way without going into detail.
Sort of like calling the three white haired guys in Advent Children "the three Sephiroths"
But that part of the story was a bit confusing in KH 2.