Review: Kingdom Hearts 1.5
Written by Ben Vollmer
Kingdom Hearts is a lot like picking through a bowl of fruit. For every bit that you enjoy, there’s something else that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Only, in this bowl of fruit, there’s no way to avoid the kinds you don’t like.
It speaks to Kingdom Hearts’ volatility that you can be grinning from ear to ear one moment only to be sour and frustrated the next. There are endless moments of charm, from the wonderful score to the delightful cast of characters. These moments don’t tend to linger, especially when the game’s core mechanic is its grind-it-out style of combat, but they leave a lasting impression. When a cut scene begins and the game’s triumphant score kicks in, you feel chills run down your spine. This is a game that often masters the cinematic experience that video games so rarely are able to deliver, so why didn’t Kingdom Hearts double down on its strengths?
It’s important to mention what Kingdom Hearts is, and why I may not be at full liberty to discuss all of its intricacies. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between the world of Disney (including Mickey Mouse and all of his awkwardly adorable companions) and the illustrious Final Fantasy franchise. Having never played a Final Fantasy game before, there were dozens of references that went right over my heads. That being said, the crossover works remarkably well even if you aren’t aware of one side or the other, since it doesn’t rely on those references to tell its story.
The game owns a wonderfully bubbly art style that uses every color in the book. The “ReMIX”‘ed 1.5 really pops on the PS4, even though the game shows its age with jagged textures and poor draw distances. The character designs are fun, and especially the Disney characters are given an expert level of attention, with your companions (Donald and Goofy) being impressively similar to their cartoon counterparts.
The game suffers when it drifts away from its narrative, but sometimes even the game’s story goes off the rails. It’s not a particularly bad thing – given how few and far between ambitious storytelling exists in this medium – but the crossover between franchises ends up having one too many good versus evil tropes for its own good. There are some wonderfully weird twists along the way, especially when you consider the back and forth between the game’s protagonist and his best friend, Riku. The details rarely make any sense, but if you don’t pay too close of attention, Kingdom Hearts comes away as one of video games most ambitious narrative experiences.
It’s a shame, then, that you spend so much less time exploring the various worlds of Kingdom Hearts than you do in its mindless combat. The best part of the entire game are its first hour or two in which you spend exploring a small little island filled with various secrets and collectible items. There’s some gameplay variation, between fun one on one fights (one of which uses a “Ganon Ball” like mechanic that never sees the light of day again) and a race, that really shows what the game could have been. Instead, it insists upon resting the bulk of its gameplay on mindlessly boring combat.
Because it only takes a few sentences to do so, here’s the entirety of what Kingdom Hearts’ combat boils down to: Sora, our protagonist, has a sword-like weapon called a Keyblade. You swing this Keyblade with the “X” button, normally against large hoards of enemies that bombard you with restless attacking. You also have a handful of magic abilities, none of which do enough damage to justify the cost, but a few of them have passive abilities like healing or extra defense. Strategically, you spam these spells as quickly as the game will allow. Your third option is a special attack via the triangle button. This can be a number of things, but they all achieve the same effect: a slightly boosted attack with the Keyblade. All of these things are upgraded automatically as you level up, with no real decisions being made on your part.
The saving grace is an item system that forces you to strategically pace your use across fights. You can give these items to your companions, but the A.I. is so poor (no doubt a result of the game’s age) that it’s a mistake to trust them with any of it. You can stockpile these items via buying them with “Munny”, which you pick up from fallen foes. It’s all tremendously basic, but the boss fights and hoards of enemies are so damn long that strategy inadvertently becomes the best part of the combat.
Speaking of which, the game’s boss fights vary from loads of fun to some of the worst design you’ll ever come across. At its best, the fights throw a few different attacks at you that are hard enough to avoid but can also learn to be avoided. What makes them fun and interesting is the tremendous work on the art design, specifically with well-known Disney villains like Ursula and Jafar. Unfortunately, the game ends on a sour note with a string of hoard-based fights and bosses (unrelated to the Disney universe at all) that spam brutally difficult attacks that often can’t be avoided. Instead, the game asks you to match their spam with your own, constantly healing yourself in hopes that you can trade blows just well enough to survive and advance.
It’s unfortunate that so much of the game is spent pressing “X”. There are worlds that seem ripe for exploration, even though all that’s often around the corner is another group of enemies to grind away at. Even the hub, which is extremely large, could have been something to remember. Instead, it’s constantly filled with little minions, scattered about. The game loves to remind you that, instead of exploration and interacting with the narrative, it wants you to mindlessly grind to higher levels so later fights aren’t so frustrating.
It shouldn’t go without mention that the game seemed remarkably devoid of bugs and glitches, and outside of a single hard-lock, the port seemed nearly perfect. The game at an even 60 FPS throughout with no dips in between. Matched with the gorgeous art design, Kingdom Hearts would fit in perfectly well with a lot of more modern games. Some of the levels are expertly crafted, especially one’s like Halloweentown, which are remarkably detains and have distinct attributes that make it easy to navigate. This makes it all the worse when you encounter levels that could have been mazes designed by a blind person.
When looking at Kingdom Hearts, it’s hard not to imagine what it could have been. Instead of reaching its potential, we’re left with a game that can’t make up its mind about what it wants to be and what it’s trying to do. That’s even without mention of some of the game’s worst mechanics, including a boring travel system and a severe lack of weapon diversity for an RPG. All the same, Kingdom Hearts is a piece of video game history that can be appreciated for everything it brings to the table, the good fruit and the bad.
Score: 5.5
Rank: N/A
