Kingdom Hearts

 PlayStation 2
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1277 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,103 out of 1277
  2. Mixed: 106 out of 1277
  3. Negative: 68 out of 1277
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  1. AnonymousMC
    Dec 30, 2005
    0
    Here are the pros of Kingdom Hearts:
    - It has good graphics.
    - The Disney characters' voices are authentic. The cons of Kingdom Hearts: - "Gameplay" consists of mashing buttons in the general direction of enemies, which appear way too often. - Knowing what to do/where to go at any given time is impossible due to the poorly executed story sequences - Stages are LIFELESS and    Here are the pros of Kingdom Hearts:
    - It has good graphics.
    - The Disney characters' voices are authentic.

    The cons of Kingdom Hearts:
    - "Gameplay" consists of mashing buttons in the general direction of enemies, which appear way too often.
    - Knowing what to do/where to go at any given time is impossible due to the poorly executed story sequences
    - Stages are LIFELESS and utterly mind-numbingly boring.
    - The inter-world trasportation mini-game adds nothing to the game and is unfathomably annoying.
    - There are so many mini-games in this game that are completely unrelated to one another and add very little if anything to the rest of the game.
    - Parts where the story is revealed are few and far between, and they certainly don't make all the work of getting through the various worlds worth it.

    I love Square, but I think this game is a clear indication that they are abusing the fame that they have earned in the past with games that are actually GOOD. It is a chore to play, with little reward. Don't get it.    … Expand
  2. MasterofOrion
    Jan 3, 2003
    4
    The disney characters are cool, but I found the gameplay mucho boring. Whoever was in charge of developing the camera in KH should be fired over there at EASquare. The best thing I could say is that if you liked FFX a lot, you'll probably enjoy KH. That said, I believe FFX to be much better.
  3. [Anonymous]
    Feb 8, 2003
    4
    This game is bad. Anyone who says otherwise, definitely knows very little, if anything, about games. First of all, it tries to pass off as an Action/RPG but it's more of an Action/Adventure game with several Platform sequences than anything else. To add insult to injury, they're bad Platform sequences at that, and they don't even touch the brilliance of a Mario game by a This game is bad. Anyone who says otherwise, definitely knows very little, if anything, about games. First of all, it tries to pass off as an Action/RPG but it's more of an Action/Adventure game with several Platform sequences than anything else. To add insult to injury, they're bad Platform sequences at that, and they don't even touch the brilliance of a Mario game by a long mile. Then you have the camera... or should I say you do NOT have one because you're pretty much fighting blind half the time while walls and objects block your sight. Gameplay is definitely the worse as it's a button-masher experience all the way - every three steps enemies show up which you MUST defeat if you want to have access to simple commands like "OPEN". That's right, you may have that neat little chest right next to you, but if there is one single enemy nearby the game won't allow you to open it. There's more, the AI for your companions is customizable but that's not saying much - either they waste all their resources in a couple of fights or they save them so much it kills them leaving you alone to fight whatever enemies are left on the screen. If there is one thing relatively "good" about Kingdom Hearts is the sound - Music is fine and the Voices are top-notch, but no one buys a game for music alone. You have been warned.… Expand
  4. CourtneyI.
    Jun 20, 2004
    2
    Ive got 1 word 4 em hard i got stuck as soon as i started not rrally 4 a 12 yr old gal like me.
  5. RanmaS.
    Oct 5, 2002
    1
    I am the dancing machine. I love this game. I bought the dance pad for this game and it made the game way better. It is groovy!!!
  6. MarkA.
    Nov 2, 2006
    2
    This game was so boring I couldn't even finish it. Total waste of money.
  7. Phuz
    Apr 27, 2021
    0
    The most boring start possible, the most clunky, horrible controls, awful camera. Just unplayable. It started so bad that I just couldn't play any longer. I'd have more fun working my way through a pile of ironing then stabbimg my eyes with a pencil.
  8. WakeUpJeff
    Oct 2, 2020
    4
    I don't really understand the praise this game gets. My main problem is that the combat is monotonous and even mind numbingly boring during the games harder sections. It's a button masher where you occasionally have to heal, so you can imagine how dull it gets throughout this 25 hour long game. This isn't to even mention the camera either. When it did impress me, however, is when it layedI don't really understand the praise this game gets. My main problem is that the combat is monotonous and even mind numbingly boring during the games harder sections. It's a button masher where you occasionally have to heal, so you can imagine how dull it gets throughout this 25 hour long game. This isn't to even mention the camera either. When it did impress me, however, is when it layed off with the combat and instead indulged in it's adventure aspects by letting me treasure hunt and find secrets within it's levels. The levels themselves were still fun to play around in, even though they're horribly lifeless by today's standard. It's story is also nothing to write home about. It's nice, but nothing amazing. The soundtrack is also worth mentioning as a highlight of the game. Although i had fun here and there, the combat was simply too prevalent to really enjoy it. I simply spent most of my time mashing the x button mindlessly over and over again for minutes on end.… Expand
  9. MuchoPelicula
    Aug 27, 2019
    2
    Unpopular Opinion: Basura Infame. Mala historia, horribles y planos personajes y mal sistema de progreso de niveles. No hablemos de la cámara. No lo volvería a tocar ni con un palo. No lo recomiendo.
  10. DjaySuzi
    Jan 27, 2021
    3
    Easily one of my least favorite games to get platinum on. I got it because I always heard great things about it but aside of the nostalgia of Disney characters that I've always known and loved everything about this game fell flat for me. I didn't care about any of the original characters, the story was a borefest, and the mechanics were awful. Then again, I never played them during theirEasily one of my least favorite games to get platinum on. I got it because I always heard great things about it but aside of the nostalgia of Disney characters that I've always known and loved everything about this game fell flat for me. I didn't care about any of the original characters, the story was a borefest, and the mechanics were awful. Then again, I never played them during their time so that could be why I'm not looking at this game through rose-colored glasses.… Expand
  11. someone78374823
    Jul 3, 2023
    0
    Kingdom Hearts is nothing more than an extremely generic JRPG with Disney IPs plus some final fantasy characters copy pasted in. This is one of the most stupid and toxic fandoms on the entire internet. The reason why this game is so popular is because it's just collective nostalgia goggles of being the only Disney game where you can play out big scenes from Disney movies in a video gameKingdom Hearts is nothing more than an extremely generic JRPG with Disney IPs plus some final fantasy characters copy pasted in. This is one of the most stupid and toxic fandoms on the entire internet. The reason why this game is so popular is because it's just collective nostalgia goggles of being the only Disney game where you can play out big scenes from Disney movies in a video game format. Because there are so many IPs from the different Disney movies, you exponentially get idiot fans from them all at once giving you the most amount of nostalgia points.

    Bosses are just "die a few times until you figure it out". This is not good game design, it just pads out the game needlessly. Thanks to this being a Square game, bosses have multiple forms which means another "die" point where they do something new. Usually it's an attack that kills you in one hit so, have fun watching the cutscene and starting over again. Diehard KH losers will tell you that this is part of the "experience". If you're playing on an emulator, use save states to make KH losers mad. You know for sure this was a bad decision because they re-made the game several times and added a skip cutscene feature, but KH idiots still defend it.

    You cannot open your menu to change equipment during boss battles. All this does is pad out the game with pointless deaths. Bosses have nonsensical abilities, a great example is Ursula who is underwater but she uses lightning? Once you figure that out you can equip lightning protection stuff but again, there's no way to know that beforehand and you just waste a boss run to find that out. You can't change equipment in battle and there's a lot of bosses that are like this, ie they are impossible or take a very long time unless you "know" in advance. Again, your average KH idiot has played through this game so many times and has forgotten this. Spending 20+ years to cope with how bad the game is designed and claiming it's "part of the experience" is not a valid argument to say the game is "good", that means it is "bad".

    Oh so very many of the worlds just suck. The entire Atlantica world sucks very bad. The entire place has one texture and they draw yellow arrows to try to tell you where to go - again, very bad game design. Everything looks the same and you get lost very quick. Even people who've played through this game 5 times get lost here. Monstro (Pinnochio's World) is similar but not as bad in this regard. Atlantica has the infamous dolphin kick ability which is extremely janky and stupid and gets in the way more than it helps you for one boss fight where you need it. Tarzan's world completely sucks and so does Wonderland and they are smack right at the beginning of the game to really put you off.

    The game is chock full of jank. Tarzan's vines are jank, jumping on any kind of moving platform is jank, targeting is jank, the fire spell is jank, the menu is dumb. Why do they limit you to 3 spells in the quick cast menu when you have a controller full of buttons? The answer to that is again to make bosses a one way death experience, to pad out the game some more when the solution was to assign a necessary spell to quick cast. Again KH losers tell you this is part of the experience.

    The entire Gummi Ship thing was pointless and 100% unnecessary. Again, more padding out of the game, and they even knew it too before it was released - the entire Gummi Ship blueprint thing is entirely unnecessary.

    The game flips its difficulty much too quickly. There is a certain point in the game where you get a few critical spells which essentially constantly refill your resources. Before you get these spells the game is incredibly difficult (at least on the hard difficulty), because every boss is walking on eggshells where one hit can take you from max health to death, completely skipping the health alert stage. After you get these spells, you essentially cannot be killed but bosses just take way too long.

    The tech system makes you feel like an idiot because it only works when you are swinging cluelessly. Sora's attack has a lag and isn't instant. Most of the time you are trying to learn a boss' pattern, and because Sora's swing isn't instant, you have to essentially take a guess and miss a lot and then take hits to the face. Seriously, 90% of the time when I did a tech it was on accident, so I started button mashing like a noob and then I started getting tech after tech.

    The central story is absolutely an afterthought ie, the main focus of the game was making the nostalgia goggles as thick as possible with the Disney IPs. It's something they made up in the space of a couple days. Just getting on youtube there are all these fan videos "attempting" to explain the story between games - my explanation video would go something like this: "They made it up in a day to get you to not focus on the fact there is nothing tying all these worlds together".

    Very overrated.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

21
#21 Best PS2 Game of 2002
2
#2 Most Discussed PS2 Game of 2002
5
#5 Most Shared PS2 Game of 2002

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 46 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 46
  3. Negative: 0 out of 46
  1. Game Informer
    95
    The battles that unfold are as beautful as they are intense, and as difficult as they are easy to manhandle. [Oct 2002, p.76]
  2. Play Magazine
    80
    To say that Kingdom Hearts is magical is an understatement. As cinematic experiences go, it's exquisite. It's not the finest in terms of action, but overall, it's wonderful. [Oct 2002, p.74]
  3. GameZone
    91
    Has a few flaws, but its unique character pairings and jaw-dropping graphics make this a remarkable RPG.
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