Introduction

After about forty hours, I finished playing through the first Kingdom Hearts game. It definitely became my favorite game I played in 2021, right up there with It Takes Two. The thirteen Disney and Final Fantasy themed worlds brought a new-found love for characters that I had not known much about before or wasn’t aware of at all. In this article, I will talk about each of the worlds I went through and share my opinion on them.

Game Development & Explanation

Before I get too far into the review portion of this article, I quickly want to explain Kingdom Hearts. It was developed by Square Enix, (they created games such as Final Fantasy XIV, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Life is Strange: True Colors and more), Kingdom Hearts is an action role-playing game. The game is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. It was originally made for the Playstation 2, but it later got re-released for the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch. (Personally, I played on the PS4, which was extremely fun).

The player plays as the main character Sora. These players begin the game with a variety of tutorials and choices to make. Players must choose between the Dream Shield, Dream Sword or Dream Rod to create their strength for the rest of the game. Then after choosing the strength, players then choose what they want to “give up”. After this tutorial, we see a cutscene of King Mickey (yes by Mickey I do mean THAT Mickey Mouse) talking about worlds disappearing. He leaves a note behind for his right hand men, Donald Duck (who is a mage) and Goofy (who is a knight). The two then set out to find the wielder of the keyblade and their king. After all of that, we are finally able to see Sora and his island. We meet minor characters Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka along with Sora’s best friends Kairi and Riku. This is where the story of Kingdom Hearts truly begins.

My Experience

Traverse Town

I began the journey of Kingdom Hearts in Traverse Town. This is simply just a “safe town” where players usually buy upgrades, get new tools, new potions, etc. Overall, I think that Traverse Town is cute and I love the fact that it is where we first met Donald and Goofy. I just feel that once the player locks the keyhole (if unlocked it destroys the world, this is why worlds are disappearing), there is no reason to go back. I was honestly able to go through most of the game without going to any of the shops that were in Traverse Town once I reached Deep Jungle. I will say it is a great place to grind and level up to get items as enemies still spawn in the different districts where shops aren’t present. Usually those encounters are fairly difficult, so it can be somewhat easy leveling up.

Traverse Town is also home to the dalmations, which as a side mission, the player can choose to try and collect the 99 dalmations that are scattered around the various levels. It didn’t take me too long to find everything, but there were times where trying to find the dalmatians got tedious. Pongo and Missis do give the player a gift for every couple of puppies saved, which is honestly super nice, as I got some really useful upgrades. Even though this is an optional side mission, I honestly felt that it was super useful for the long run of playing the rest of the levels.

On top of the dalmations, Merlin’s house can also be found in Traverse Town and he is able to teach players magic and train them in the arts. The fairy godmother from Cinderella is also able to help the player get more summon characters. Summons are characters that have lost their worlds but can be, as the name entails, summoned to help the player fight in battles. Merlin’s house also holds the Winnie the Pooh book, which I sadly was never able to actually explore and do more with in the time I played the game.

All in all, this is a great world for basic gaming needs, but is by no means one of the best worlds in the game. I recommend doing the side missions as I do believe they are helpful in the long run, but honestly nothing in Traverse Town is vital to the story except in certain situations.

Wonderland

Going down the rabbit hole, I next explored Wonderland. This is the first world that I got to play alongside Goofy and Donald. This was super exciting as it finally started to feel like I was playing Kingdom Hearts and not just trying to go through a bunch of plot dumping. Wonderland is just as confusing in this game as it is in any movie, but is still fairly fun to play. It is not by any means one of my favorite worlds though. The world can get confusing and there were times that I wasn’t sure what the next step to completing the world was.

I will say that this world probably holds one of my favorite fighting sequences. We are able to fight the “knight cards” that work for the Queen of Hearts, and even though it is slightly difficult, it is still extremely fun. The cards will fall face first once the player has defeated them, and then after a couple seconds will float back up extremely cartoonishly. I just find that entire sequence super entertaining and funny, so I just can’t see why that wouldn’t be one of my favorite fighting scenes.

All in all though, that fighting scene doesn’t make up for the confusing setup of the world. It gets really difficult knowing where to go unless you’ve played the game before, and sometimes it is nearly impossible to know how to play the puzzle parts of the level. That can get frustrating after a period of time, but honestly other than that it is still a reasonable level! It’s not bad but it’s also not very good either.

Coliseum

Now, this is one of my top two worlds. First of all, it is Hercules, so HOW can you go wrong there, and second of all, it’s literally just a world where you beat the hell out of enemies. The entire world is a tournament based game where Phil, who is leading the tournament, will send in heartless (the enemies of the game) in different groups to challenge us, the player. It is literally so much fun because as a player you can practice new magic, get the hang of the menu, and even just kill a bunch of enemies if you’re in a bad mood. It’s just an extremely fun world.

To add on to that, this is a world where people can keep coming back to fight in more tournaments that get harder as you progress in the game. The last one that I did was called the “Hades Cup” which was extremely difficult but so worth the struggle. Hades was just an extremely hard boss to fight once the player got to that point in the tournament, but it is so worth every aching second. There is also a secret boss level in this world which I have yet to fight, but I’ve heard it’s extremely difficult. So I will need to take some time to level up Sora even more before I can do that fight.

Not only that, after a certain point in the game, Phil and Hercules will actually give the player a new keyblade (a weapon that only certain people can weild), which is probably one of the coolest looking keyblades in the whole game. It’s also probably the second or third most powerful keyblade in the whole game. It was the keyblade I used to fight and defeat Riku which was extremely rewarding. So, I may be a little biased but I have a lot of good associations with the Coliseum.

Even though this world is simple and doesn’t have a lot of story aspect to it, I still adore the fighting aspect of Kingdom Hearts especially in this world. It’s so much fun being able to just turn off the brain and just beat the hell out of some enemies with a giant key alongside Donald and Goofy. It’s just such a fun world and I have nothing bad to say about it other than I wanted more from the world.

Deep Jungle

Deep Jungle is the Tarzan themed world, which sounds great right? WRONG. I hate this world with a burning passion in my soul. First of all, it tries to be a platformer world. A “platformer” is pretty much just parkour in a video game. The player needs to find a way to get from point A to point B in some way that is usually just jumping, but sometimes there is a puzzle that needs to be solved along the way. Now, if Deep Jungle had more of the puzzle aspect it would be fine, but it doesn’t. The player just needs to jump from point A to B, but if you mess up, well guess what restart that entire section. It’s extremely frustrating especially when you get to the place you need to go and it’s the WRONG SPOT.

Plus this is the level, I really started to notice how absolutely awful the camera is in Kingdom Hearts. There is never a good angle to have the camera at and even if I put it where I wanted it, the camera would automatically move itself where it feels it needs to be. It’s extremely frustrating and I just never felt like this world was as good as it could’ve possibly been.

Honestly the only redeeming quality is the fact that the boss fight is honestly pretty cool. Clayton pretty much becomes besties with this heartless lizard that can go invisible. Once you get the lizard to a certain health it does become visible and it honestly looks really cool. This boss fight still doesn’t make up for how awful this world is. It’s just a super frustrating one to play and it’s one that I only went back to once (to find the dalmatians I didn’t get in the world). All in all, I hate this world, but this is just my opinion so don’t take it too much to heart.

Agrabah

Traveling through the gummi ship, my next stop was Agrabah. Honestly, I’m pretty indifferent towards this world. The boss fights are fun, the puzzles are pretty enjoyable, it just doesn’t reach the same amount of love for me as the Coliseum or Halloween Town. Even as I am trying to write this, there aren’t many qualities that I hated to the bone or loved with my whole soul. It was just Agrabah. It was fun playing with Aladdin and the scenery was probably one of the most accurate to the movie which is awesome.

The biggest positive that does stand out to me is the fight against the Cave of Wonders. This is a really fun boss fight that’s the perfect amount of fun and difficult. I almost actually beat it my first try, I just wasn’t quite powerful enough. That’s honestly all I have to say about Agrabah, it’s truly a mediocre world. I know that my boyfriend adores this Kingdom Hearts world, I was just never able to really fall in love with it.

Monstro

For those who don’t know, Monstro is the giant whale that eats Pinocchio. This world is just stupid. You’re in a giant whale and all of the different rooms are labeled as “Chamber 1-6” and they all look the exact same so it’s super confusing going through the rooms. It’s honestly a completely useless world and is mostly just there for the plot. Pinocchio is kidnapped by Riku (who is working for Maleficent) because it is thought that Pinocchio is one of the “Princess of Heart” who can “open the door to Kingdom Hearts.” It turns out he’s not and that Riku just kidnapped a random kid.

The funniest part of this world is honestly just Pinocchio’s voice lines when he is trapped and about to be taken by Riku. I’ll link a video to it because honestly it’s the best part of this world and I find it extremely funny. Other than that, this world kind of sucks in my opinion.

Atlantica

Atlantica is the next world that I explored and conquered. Much like Agrabah, I’m indifferent towards this world, but there are a few more positives I would like to point out about the world. First, Sora is actually turned into a merman, which is really cool for seeing the effect of underwater combat. Plus we get to see Donald as an octopus and Goofy as a turtle. It’s super ridiculous but it is so funny to see combat with our companions the way that they are. I also played alongside Ariel for a bit and let me tell you she is probably one of the most powerful side characters ever. She just is way too overpowered and it’s honestly really funny seeing Ariel murder a bunch of heartless.

I also have fond memories fighting against Ursula nearing the completion of this world. I was playing alongside my boyfriend, who was pretty much my guide through the whole game. For some reason, this man has every single one of Ursula’s lines memorized from this boss fight. It was so funny watching him recite these lines while I fought a fairly fun and difficult fight. I wish there was more I could say I loved, but honestly this just wasn’t a world that really stuck out to me and I remember when I think about this game. I still think it is one of the more action packed levels, despite my differing opinion on it.

Halloween Town

Yes, it is THAT Halloween Town. Working alongside Jack Skellington was literally the most fun experience of all time. Not only is the world itself a perfect representation of Halloween Town and the Nightmare Before Christmas, it is an absolute joy to play. None of the citizens of Halloween Town are scared of the heartless so there is a little bit less fighting then usual, which is a really nice break especially after Atlantic which was extremely fighting based. Along with that, since no one is afraid of the heartless, Jack has actually taken on the responsibility of using these heartless for next Halloween. This sets the world before Jack tries to take over Christmas, which makes me feel as though it is a backstory. I realize that it isn’t, but I still love the fact that in Kingdom Hearts, it absolutely is.

Halloween Town is also home to some of the best heartless and group looks of the whole game. The heartless look like they came right from the Tim Burton movie and I absolutely love it. Not only that, Sora, Donald, and Goofy each are spooky in their own way and I absolutely live for it. It just makes me so happy seeing one of my favorite movies recreated for now one of my favorite video games.

Plus the final boss fight is of course Oogie Boogie, who is such a pain to fight, but it honestly makes the fight so much more fun. I just love the characters and I love the fact that Lock, Shock, and Barrell still have important roles even in the game. I just love this world and I could go on forever about how amazing it is, but I’ll stop myself.

Neverland
The final Disney themed world that I will talk about is Neverland. I honestly don’t have a lot to say about this world. It is fairly cute and it definitely gives me warm fuzzies after finishing it. The enemies look like pirates which is awesome and we also get to fight Sora’s shadow. All in all that’s really all I got about this world. Much like Agrbha and Atlantica, this world just didn’t give me as much passion and excitement as the Coliseum and Halloween Town.

Conclusion

Due to the fact that the last two worlds have major spoilers to the end of the game and the Kingdom Hearts franchise, I have chosen not to write about them. I loved both Hollow Bastion and The End of the World, but I feel that those are worlds that must be experienced by the player.

In conclusion, although there was a lot of love and hate while playing this game, it was amazing to experience. It was great being able to see some of my favorite Disney characters in a new light while also growing attached to new characters. The story of Kingdom Hearts is a bit confusing, but despite that this is probably my favorite game I played in the year 2021.

I truly recommend that anyone who is a fan of Final Fantasy and Disney plays this game. Even if you’re not, it’s a great game to play with fun characters and hard enough gameplay that it’s not boring. Thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed this article and possibly even find inspiration to play Kingdom Hearts yourself.