Summing It Up

Three-Dimensional Cartoons?

While Kingdom Hearts lacks the cel-shaded splendor of Nintendo’s upcoming Zelda game or UbiSoft’s XIII, Disney’s characters make the transition into a three-dimensional world flawlessly. Square’s artists and animators obviously spent innumerable hours faithfully studying and translating Disney’s characters into polygonal form so skillfully that it seems like the next natural evolution for Disney’s characters to follow. Square’s traditional anime styling has been glossed over in favor of a full adaptation of Disney’s distinctive presentation. Though the Square characters such as Sora resemble past Final Fantasy characters, the spiky hair and large eyes have been toned down to mesh more smoothly with Disney’s traditional art. Kingdom Hearts’ lush and vivid presentation once again reestablishes firmly that Square is at the top of its game.

Ariel meets Sora

Roo, Tigger, and Sora

Gepetto and Pinocchio

Refined Gameplay

As recent successes such as Devil May Cry have shown, three-dimensional games can be as effortless and intuitive to control as their two-dimensional brethren. Square aims to not only provide gamers with a fluid, interactive world, but to further bridge the gap between traditional RPGs and platformers. Kingdom Hearts features a real-time battle system combined with elements that are quintessential Square, such as summon spells. Yet, this time around, Square’s traditional Esper cast have stepped aside in lieu of Disney favorites, featuring a range of effects from Mushu’s fiery breath and Simba’s ferocious roar, to more benign, helpful effects, such as Bambi ‘unleashing’ a massive amount of items.

Kingdom Hearts, thankfully, allows a fully player-controlled first-person camera angle, avoiding the awkward perspectives which have long plagued three-dimensional fixed-camera games. In addition, Kingdom Hearts places battles directly upon the field map, avoiding the tedium of random battles. And finally, as expected, character movement will vary greatly upon the world Sora visits. Ariel swims, Peter Pan soars, and Tarzan climbs, as characters take on the modus operandi of their respective worlds. Square, in their legendary notice to detail, even fine-tuned these explorative actions. For example, the width of a tree determines how Sora might climb it.

Heartless in Agrabah

Battling Heartless in the jungle

Summoning Genie!

Conclusion

Square and Disney, in a production team numbering over a hundred, are finishing their localization effort on a game that has already enjoyed immense success in Japan. We’ll be treated to top-notch voice acting talent along with numerous features exclusive to the American release of Kingdom Hearts. Square, in a first for one of its localization efforts, is even reconstructing the facial motions of all the characters to complement the English voice-overs. Playstation 2 owners are in for a real treat this fall, as Kingdom Hearts poises itself to raise the bar on action RPGs.

All images copyright 2002 Disney Developed by SQUARESOFT

Tarzan character and Deep Jungle setting trademark owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., images used by permission. Copyright 2002 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc and Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Developed by SQUARESOFT

Final Fantasy character images copyright 1990, 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2002 SQUARE CO., LTD.