An elevator ride with Square & Disney execs in a Japan office building got the two of them thinking why they'd never done business together. A proposition was made leading to the most wonderfully bizarre concept for a game in years! Disney worlds with Square's Final Fantasy & Original characters dotting the various landscapes as the pint size keyblade wielder Sora (he looks like a kiddified & mickey moused Sion from The Bouncer) searches for his missing friends Riku & Kairi, and seeks to thwart the plans of some of Disney's worst villains and a frightening race known only as "The Heartless". Containing authentic Disney voice-overs from either top celebrities or very convincing impersonators as well as a seamless translation from 2D cartoon characters to 3D game characters! But with all the bells and whistles one could think of, does that make it a good game?
Why it sucks: Man... where to start. Well, first off Square spent so much of their resources on Movies, design and whatnot that they seem to have forgotten that you're supposed to PLAY the game. The controls are just awful!!! Sora has this brief delay before he jumps which can sometimes cost you dearly, and on the topic of his jumping... it's like he floats before he actually lands and after that he pauses before he can run around again. Then there's the combat... it's neat at first, but after each heartless encounter... it starts getting old... I mean real old. Basically a lot of button mashing work. The glitches are numerous and show REALLY sloppy work on the part of square. You have to one determined SOB to go through this game. Because instead of real rewards, the game gives you more heaache than anything else. The camera is just a joke, considering the "lock-on" function is supposedly meant to do just that, it fails miserably since you half the time lose your target or the camera seems to forget that it's supposed to be following something. >_< And while on the topic of the camera, the damn thing will FIGHT to keep you from seeing the way you want to go and you will see this this throughout the game and often at the times you REALLY don't need the hassle. As much as I'd really like to say that was the last of the problems... it's not. The Gummi ship. Oh man... The Gummi ship is a spacecraft made out of colorful blocks that look vaguely reminscent of various "gummi" treats. You can build and alter your ship(s) as the game progresses with various gummi parts you find. They went nuts in terms of designing and building ships, but the end result is a terrible third person space shooter whose only contribution to the game is that it totally kills the pace of the story and what laughable gameplay KH offers. Totally throws off ones groove to have to go from keybashing to gummi blasting. >_< Basically, the game has SO MANY little flaws and frustrating moments that assuming you can avoid breaking your PS2 or any innocent items in your room when playing, you should... no MUST have at least one buffer game to keep yourself from burning out on it. When I say "hard" & "frustrating" I don't mean Vagrant Story, I mean Shadowman on the Dreamcast or Superman on the 64 type of frustration and hard. Also if you hate Disney or Final Fantasy, or BOTH then the choice should be a no brainer.
Why it rules!: The concept alone is something that takes at least a few minutes just to accept as possible. Then seeing it in action is... sobering. Whatever the closed minded fanboys have said about this being a "bad idea" were totally wrong, in KH the FF Superstars: Squall, Cloud and Sephiroth have NEVER looked better and make the scene as even MORE bad-ass bad-asses than they were in their own respective games!!! And lordy, Aeris (or "Aerith") never looked better, especially for a dead chick :) Yuffie is a scantilly dressed as usual as she tags along w/ Squall & Aeris. Cid makes the scene as his usual charming self majoring in Gummi Mechanics. Tidus, Selphie & Wakka are all shrunk down to kiddy age and are childhood pals of Sora and Co. on the Destiny Islands. To be perfectly honest, this is like a FF fan's wet dream come true! The cameos alone make it a must have! And the US exclusive Hidden Sephiroth match makes for a seriously awesome reason to have the game combined with The Ice Titan and Kurt Zisa US Exclusive Bosses. Then there's all the Minigames in the 100 Acre Wood which increase as you collect Torn Pages from around the worlds and coupled with the Various "Cup" Tournaments and the Dalmatian Hunt, you'll have plenty on your plate in this game. On it's own, the game actually has some fun gameplay! Despite the frustrating levels (Arrgh!!!! Damn you Deep jungle!!!Damn you to hell!!!), there's a salvageable game here! The esthetics alone make this thing an incredible game to play (at the very least try), the levels accompanied by a riveting soundtrack and cameo characters who will join your party to free their worlds from the heartless (Beast, Jack Skellington, Aladdin, etc.) and the opportunity to slap around some classic Disney villains (Jafar, Oogie-boogie, Malificent,Cap'n Hook, etc.) and use some awesome Disney summons (Genie, Simba, Mushu, Tinkerbelle, etc.) make for a huge disney nostalgia-fest. ^_^
Overall: The frustration is more than worth it for hardcore fans of either franchise and an incredible tear-jerking treat for fans of both. It's just awesome! It's got a mess of flaws and you may end up breaking the disc instead of playing it if you can't manage your frustration. Good idea to take a break often when playing KH so as to avoid burning out or hating it. If Square had done a little more work on the jumping, climbing, grabbing ledges and overal "platformer" aspect, this game would be the stuff of gaming gods. However since they put so much emphasis on mini-games, side quests, movies and overal esthetics they lost big when they just plain ignored how cheap and frustrating the bulk of the gameplay is. A winner simply by concept, but man does it need some fine tuning. Also, if you have the stones to not only beat the game, but find ALL the dalmatians AND get through the Hades cup, you'll be treated to a brief taste of KH2! Woo! This is a great game, it's a lot of fun and a great treat for FF fans! A casual gamer might be scared off or intrigued by the harsh and frustrating challenge it offers, I dunno casual gamers are weird sometimes. In the end, it's what you make of it, love it or hate it, the game's doing just fine thank you in terms of sales and will be a matter of debate for some time I'm sure. Personally, I look forward to KH2 and hope that you can actually USE some of the FF characters and visit some FF worlds along with Disney. And where the heck's Tifa, Zidane or Kuja??? There's tons of potential with this series and if Square gets their act together the sequel will be easily a must have!