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Kingdom Hearts doesn't always clearly let
you know what you should be doing next so this can result
in some backtracking. You might have to run about for a while
at times to try and find the next checkpoint, usually it will
be a dead end that will make you realise that you need to
go the other way. The combat in Kingdom hearts is good fun,
but it can also get a bit repetitive. To start with you will
be able to execute some shot combo attacks using your keyblade,
later you will be joined by Donald and Goofy who will fight
along side you and draw some enemy attacks away from you.
It is good have these two by your side (Others will join you
too) through out most of the game but they basically serve
just a couple of functions, they will provide you with health
at times and secondly they are good at drawing the enemy away
from you. You are also able to customise their battling techniques
even if you do you will still have to fend for yourself for
the most part. Later in the game you will access quite a lot
of special abilities including magic and some great looking
summoning spells. Enemies will come in a wide variety of shapes
and sizes; you will be able to defeat many of them just by
pressing the attack button until they burst. When you do destroy
an enemy they will release little orbs that can be collected
to give you money, health or magic power. You will only fight
a few different types of Heartless in each area and no matter
how many you kill they will keep coming, so you eventually
learn evasion is a much better tactic and it will save you
a lot of trouble.
The bosses and the battles you have with
them in Kingdom Hearts are one of the games main highlights
in the game play department. Bosses appear all over the map
and they range in difficulty from easy to fairly difficult.
Unfortunately if you loose a battle with a boss you will have
to watch the pre-fight cut scene before trying beat the boss
again. This can be frustrating especially in the later stages
of the game when the bosses become a little more difficult.
One good thing though is that each boss is very spectacular
and they are all very different, so you will be going into
battle eagerly to see what the boss looks like. As well as
looks the way in which you have to defeat each boss varies
and you will have to use different tactics for each. Generally
logic will and reflexes will prove the best way to defeat
a boss. For the more difficult bosses it generally pays for
you to waste loads of Heartless beforehand in order to build
up your levels of magic, health and money. If you do this
well the hardest of battles will become a cinch.
When travelling between worlds you will
be faced with spaceship shooter levels. Unfortunately these
don't fare quite as well as other aspects of the game play.
It's similar to Nintendo's Star Fox but it hasn't been executed
half as well as it should have been. You will be left stuck
on "rails" for several minutes at a time as you
blast some pretty rubbish looking opponents. You sense of
perception will also be a bit out when you're flying through
space, for some reason you will find yourself missing some
of the targets that looked like they should have been hit.
Everything you see in Kingdom Hearts looks
great and the characters all look fantastic, especially the
Disney ones. What else is amazing is the characters expressions
and their movement, both facial and body, they look just like
their brothers and sisters on film even thought they are in
3D within the game.
The voice actors who provide the speech
for the game have also done a very good job; all the spoken
dialogue is excellent and even better are the cut scenes,
they are truly brilliant. You may notice that some of the
cut scenes have had more time spent on them then others, Disney
have got the art of humour right down to the finest detail.
For better or worse you will probably like watching Kingdom
Hearts better than playing it at times. The sound effects
and music are not on the same level are the spoken dialogue,
it's a little disappointing, its very rare to find games that
are perfect in every way.
Kingdom Hearts is a good laugh because it
captures the spirit of not just Disney but Square too, which
is quite amazing to see in a single game. The are two reasons
this game has pulled it off the way it has, Squares experience
of this type of genre and secondly, Disney's cartoon characters
that have caught the imaginations of millions of kids in the
world. Like the cartoons this game can be recommended to anybody.
Oh, you also are getting you monies worth of game too.
8.0 out of
10
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