Kingdom Hearts (game)
| This article is about the original game. For other uses, see Kingdom Hearts (disambiguation). |
| Kingdom Hearts | |
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| キングダムハーツ Kingudamu Hātsu | |
| Developer(s) | Square Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) |  Square Co., Ltd. / Square EA, Disney Interactive / Sony Computer Entertainment
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| Release date(s) | March 28, 2002/ September 17, 2002 November 15, 2002 November 22, 2002
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| Genre | Action RPG |
| Game modes | Single player |
| Ratings | ESRB: EveryonePEGI:  7+USK: 6+ OFLC: G8+ ELSPA: 11+ |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
- "You never know who you'll run into next."
- —Tagline
Kingdom Hearts is the first game in the Kingdom Hearts series. Revolving around a fourteen-year-old boy named Sora, it details his adventures after his homeworld is destroyed by sinister creatures known as the Heartless, and his attempts to restore his world and reunite with his friends. He meets many characters from classic Disney films and a handful from the Final Fantasy video game series. The main theme song for the game is "Simple and Clean", performed by Utada Hikaru.
Chronologically, Kingdom Hearts follows Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, takes place during Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- and takes place before Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, as well as partially overlapping with Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
An enhanced version, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, features more enemies, additional scenes, and many other elements, and was released in Japan on December 26, 2002.
Development
Kingdom Hearts was originally concepted as a result of Disney’s desire to expand into the game industry and a desire from Squaresoft’s developers to make a game with the same mass appeal as the likes of Super Mario 64, but felt they needed characters as recognisable as those owned by the Disney corporation.[1] Both companies at the time shared office space in Japan, and thanks to a chance encounter in an elevator, Shinji Hashimoto was able to pitch the idea of a partnership. Tetsuya Nomura, at the time known for his work as concept artist on various Final Fantasy titles and one of the story designers for Final Fantasy VII, overheard Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi discussing the collaboration and requested that he be able to direct.[2]
Nomura begun initial concepts on Kingdom Hearts, which at one point had the working title of Kingdom, around 1997 but assembled a full team for the project after the release of Final Fantasy VIII.[3] Originally Disney had specific ideas in mind for the project, however at a pitch meeting Nomura interrupted their presentation and instead presented his own original design document which featured early concept of Sora wielding a chainsaw. While some executives were apprehensive, the then-CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner, was receptive to many of the ideas Nomura had, and allowed him a tremendous amount of freedom with the project.[4]
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Originally in the beginning Nomura had drafted a list of 20 potential Disney worlds, but this gradually got whittled down as he went over with his team which worlds would be both popular and fun to move around in.[5] The development team took inspiration from Disney parks when it came to world-design, making each area full of interactable and puzzles. Care was also taken to not overlap too strongly in the theming of each world, resulting in worlds such as Neverland being contained to it’s pirate ship and clocktower settings.[6] Additionally a world based on The Lion King was cut from the title as a result of system limitations, but would be reused in Kingdom Hearts II.[7] The team assembled for Kingdom Hearts was made up of staff from other Squaresoft titles such as Final Fantasy, but many of them had not worked on an action title before. The team put a greater focus into the presentation of the effects and animations while in combat and moving around the world, as to immerse the player in the game. Care was taken to ensure that the originally 2D Disney characters would look naturally when seen in a 3D space for the first time, with particular focus being placed on the shadows and lighting in scenes.
Initially Nomura had drafted a simpler scenario outline than the one Kingdom Hearts would finish development with, he adjusted the scenario at the behest of Hironobu Sakaguchi, who insisted the game would not make as much of an impact without more of an edge to the title.[8] This resulted in design changes to some of the Heartless enemy designs, and the addition of antagonist Ansem, Seeker of Darkness whose identity and design wasn’t fully fleshed out until later in the development process. Tetsuya Nomura was joined by writers Daisuke Watanabe and Jun Akiyama, who helped flesh out the Disney worlds and character dialogue. Kazushige Nojima, a writer best known for Final Fantasy VII, also came onto the project late in development to assist.[9] While concepted to only include Disney characters, Nomura decided to introduce Final Fantasy characters from games he had worked on, in places in the story he couldn’t think of fitting Disney characters or original ones. Characters such as Yuffie and Squall Leonhart would have been original characters, but he felt they would not be as appealing.[10] The roles of Yuffie and Aerith from Final Fantasy VII were originally to be fulfilled by Rikku from Final Fantasy X and Aya Brea from Parasite Eve;[11] Rikku would eventually appear in the series in Kingdom Hearts II.
The game eventually released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 on March 28, 2002. The game then released in North America on September 17 of that year, and is notable for containing extra content not in the initial release. This content includes new optional bosses – one of which, Kurt Zisa, was named after the winner of the official website's "Name-In-Game" sweepstakes – an extra difficulty level, and a teaser of Kingdom Hearts II accessible by meeting certain criteria. This version of the game was re-released in Japan with even more content added in as Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, which has been used for every subsequent re-release.
Story
Sora finds himself guided by a mysterious voice in a stained-glass void, the Dive to the Heart, which foreshadows the events that will soon take place. He ends up being swallowed by the Darkside Heartless, and is awakened by Kairi on the beach of Destiny Islands, revealing it was a nightmare. Riku motivates them to continue working on their raft in order to explore new worlds. While fetching supplies in a secret cave, Sora encounters a mysterious hooded figure who ominously speaks that this "world" has been connected and tied to the darkness. He accuses Sora of lacking knowledge and then disappears.
One night, the islands are attacked by the Heartless. Sora seeks out his friends, finding Riku first; Riku disappears into darkness, curious about what it contains. Soon after, Sora obtains a mysterious weapon, the Keyblade, to defend himself. Using it to fend off the creatures, he heads for the secret cave, where he finds Kairi near a door. She turns to him, saying his name as the door behind her blows open. The ensuing blast of darkness sends Kairi towards Sora, she disappears before Sora could catch her. After the same blast knocks Sora out of the cave, he fights the creature from his nightmare. A gravitational pull sucks Sora up into the sky and into the void as the Islands now destroyed.
Meanwhile, King Mickey Mouse has left his world to deal with the increasing power of darkness and left instructions for mage Donald Duck and knight Goofy to find and follow the "key". Donald and Goofy use a Gummi Ship to travel to Traverse Town, where Sora has also ended up. Sora encounters the creatures again in the town, and eventually meets Leon, demanding the Keyblade. After a fight, Leon explains the identity of the creatures that attacked him. They are known as Heartless, and that they are creatures that consume hearts (and eventually whole worlds). He further points out that the Keyblade is the only weapon capable of defeating them. The king of Leon's home world, a man named Ansem, is said to have studied the Heartless but now missing. Donald and Goofy are approached by Leon's ally Aerith, who also tells them what they may be looking for. Soon after, Sora meets Donald and Goofy rather hastily, and the three work together to take down a large Heartless.
From there, they decide to travel together: Donald and Goofy to find Mickey, and Sora to find Kairi and Riku. The three travel to various worlds based on Disney films, finding that the Keyblade also locks "Keyholes", passages that the Heartless use to take the heart of the world. A group of villains, led by Maleficent, seek out the seven Princesses of Heart to unlock the Keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts, a repository of knowledge and power and the source of all hearts. This group now includes Riku, who is swayed by Maleficent's promises that she will help find Kairi. She also sows distrust in Riku, telling him that Sora has abandoned him and Kairi for new friends and the Keyblade. An increasingly antagonistic Riku manages to find Kairi's body, but her heart is missing.
Sora and his friends eventually arrive at Hollow Bastion, the home world of Ansem and the headquarters of Maleficent. Riku takes the Keyblade from Sora, claiming that he was fated to have it all along and Sora was simply the "delivery boy". Donald and Goofy, taking their order to follow the "key" seriously, reluctantly leave with Riku. Sora calls on his courage and enters the Bastion anyway, then challenges Riku again, stating that his heart derives strength from his friends. His friends return to him, as does the Keyblade. Shamed by defeat, Riku flees and meets a cloaked man who goads him to give into the darkness.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy destroy Maleficent. They encounter a strangely-behaving Riku with a new Keyblade that unlocks hearts called the Keyblade of heart. He leads them to Kairi's living but unfeeling body; Riku then reveals himself as completely possessed by Ansem. The newly reformed Ansem explains that Kairi is the last Princess of Heart, and that her missing heart has been trapped within Sora's body since the destruction of Destiny Islands. Spurred to action, Sora defeats Ansem; however, he cannot seal Hollow Bastion's Keyhole because Kairi's heart is still in his body, thus the keyhole remains incomplete. Sora uses Ansem's Keyblade to unlock his heart, releasing both his and Kairi's heart, but turning him into a Heartless. Kairi's heart returns to her body, in turn completing the final Keyhole; she then returns Sora to human form by the strength of her heart. The group resolves to follow and end Ansem's plan.
By this time, Ansem has retreated to the End of the World, the combined fragments of worlds taken by the Heartless. Sora and his friends pursue Ansem and eventually find him at the world's core, formed from the ruins of Destiny Islands. There, Ansem explains that Riku viewed his lonely island as a prison, and his yearning to be free made him vulnerable to the darkness. He gives a short sermon about the heart's connection to darkness before attacking, but is beaten back. He falls back to the abyss surrounding the Door to Darkness, where he declares his intention to claim Kingdom Hearts for himself and merges with his battleship, the World of Chaos, for one final fight. Despite temporarily capturing Donald and Goofy, Ansem falls to Sora and desperately reaches out to Kingdom Hearts, begging it to empower him with its darkness. However, as the doors open, Ansem is shocked to learn that Kingdom Hearts is made not of darkness, but of light, and its power vaporizes him.
Beyond the door are Mickey and Riku, back in control of his own body. They help Sora and the others close the door, as there are many Heartless beyond it, but Riku and Mickey must remain inside to help seal it. Riku asks Sora to take care of Kairi. Mickey and Sora then use their Keyblades to lock the door.
The destroyed worlds reconstruct themselves; Kairi is pulled back to the Destiny Islands, but Sora promises before separating they will all reunite some day. Sora, Donald, and Goofy resolve to find Riku and Mickey, though they are unsure of where to start. Luckily, Pluto appears, clutching a letter from Mickey in his mouth; he runs off with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in tow, ready for a new set of adventures. The silent narrator from the beginning of the game states in the final scene that Sora's destiny is to open the door to light. Meanwhile, Kairi finds a drawing in the secret cave of Sora giving her a Paopu Fruit; Kairi weeps in happiness and reciprocates the drawing.
Gameplay
Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG with hack and slash gameplay. Players maneuver around a 3D environment via a series of inter-connected rooms while also doing battle with enemies therein. The combat interface takes inspiration from other JRPGs and the player is able to choose a variety of actions from a 'Command Menu' on the left-hand side of the screen, which they can navigate via the use of the D-Pad or the right-analog stick. Additionally players can assign magic commands to a shortcut menu for easy access in the middle of combat. 'Kingdom Hearts' also shares features with other JRPGs, such as equipment and accessory customization, magic spells, HP, MP, EXP, etc. Sora attacks with a Keyblade which can change form once Keychains are found. Equipping abilities uses AP, meaning the player must choose certain abilities instead of all of them. Similar to the Final Fantasy series, Sora can acquire powerful special attack and Summon commands which consume MP to execute. In the original release of the game Summons were placed in the magic submenu of the command menu, and special attacks such as Sonic Blade dynamically appeared as the bottommost option in the menu.
Items and accessories can be found in various locations hidden within treasure chests, or as rewards for completing certain objectives. Certain abilities can also be found in similar fashion. The game has a focus on exploration and platforming in it's world design, and players are encouraged to return to previously visited locations with new abilities such as Glide or High Jump to reach previously hard to reach locations. The Heartless that spawn in each world also changes near the end of the game, dynamically increasing the difficulty once the player has progressed the game enough.
In the beginning of the game, by choosing between the Dream Sword, Dream Shield and Dream Rod, the player can choose a growth path that fits their play style—choosing the sword will prioritize abilities that strengthen Sora's offense, while choosing the rod will prioritize abilities that strengthen magic. This also changes the order in which abilities are learned. Choosing which weapon to keep and sacrifice will also affect Sora's starting stats. The player will also be asked three questions which will affect how fast they level up.
Sora is the only directly controlled character, while Donald and Goofy are controlled by AI, although the player can adjust their AI behavior so that they use items and abilities more or less frequently. Because there can only be three party members at a time, the player may swap them out with others, such as Aladdin or Jack Skellington, but only in their respective world. For example, Jack can not become a party member in Agrabah. While the player can stick to Donald and Goofy, the player will need Aladdin in their party during the Cave of Wonders segment in Agrabah to progress. In the original release of Kingdom Hearts Sora could command party members to attack by using the triangle button, however this was removed in Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX.
There are colored Trinity marks which are scattered throughout the worlds. Donald and Goofy must be in the party to activate them, and the color of the Trinity must be obtained through story progress. Trinity Marks can be collected at any point aside from a permanently missable Red Trinity mark in Halloween Town in the original version of the game. There are also 99 Puppies scattered throughout worlds; returning them to Pongo and Perdita in Traverse Town will result in rewards.
The player travels between worlds in a Gummi Ship. The player must ride the Gummi Ship upon visiting new worlds, although it is possible to install a "warp" function for the Gummi Ship which warps the ship to worlds already found. Players can access the Gummi Garage which allows them to create their own ships from Gummi Blocks (KH) dropped by enemy ships or bought from Cid in Traverse Town. Ships can be entirely custom-built or made from Blueprints acquired throughout the game. Gameplay during these segments is entirely on rails, with the Gummi Ship automatically moving forward, though the player can move it around the screen and slow it's movement. Players use a targeting indicator to fire at incoming enemy ships, which drop materials that can be used to make ships.
Worlds and characters
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External links
Notes and references
- ^ Iwata Asks Volume 12; Tetsuya Nomura: "Well, just as I was working on FFVII8, Mario 649 was released. The fully three-dimensional spaces and the freedom you had to run around them had a big impact on me. When I told my colleagues I wanted to make a game like that, they said "but Mario's already a world-famous character. It would be impossible to start from scratch with an all-new character."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Ultimania; Tetsuya Nomura: "I offered my hand and said, “If that’s the case, since I have an idea I want to do, please let me do this.” The person from Disney was in on the idea and said, “Since it’s stylized, it would be best if there are Disney characters that are known world-wide.” It was a great opportunity, as if it was destined."
- ^ Famitsu Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Q&A
- ^ Iwata Asks Volume 12; Tetsuya Nomura: "They didn't, no. In the end, I actually stopped a presentation halfway through. We didn't have that much time, and it looked like it was all going to get taken up by various Disney presentations. So, I interrupted them and told them the conclusion by saying, "I won't make such games."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Ultimania; Tetsuya Nomura: "In the beginning when I was working alone, I had a fair number of world choices in mind. If I were to add the original worlds, there was over twenty."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Ultimania; Takeshi Endou: "Destiny Islands already is an island setting, and there are many towns from other movies that make an appearance. Taking that into consideration, I think the most recognizable places from Peter Pan are the pirate ship and the clock tower."
- ^ Dengeki Playstation 2005; Tetsuya Nomura: " In fact, Lion King was a world I already wanted to put in the previous instalment. Only, it was abandoned because making Sora into a 4 legged animal required a different program."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Ultimania; Tetsuya Nomura: "I got a talk from Mr. Sakaguchi, saying that if we didn't aim for the level that FF does, this project would be a failure. Well, I understood what he was saying. So, for the game's contents...... The gameplay was always the same sort of thing from the start, but we improved the story greatly. At the beginning, we were thinking we'd make the story extremely simple. At that time, when characters like Ansem didn't even exist, we were thinking that you'd kill Maleficent and the game would end there."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania; Kazushige Nojima: "I didn't have a lead role, I just came on board to help out in the final stages. I mostly wrote the scenario from Hollow Bastion onwards."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Ultimania; Tetsuya Nomura: "For example, I couldn’t think of any Disney characters to put in as the Destiny Island children. When I thought about which character would guide Sora in Traverse Town, nothing struck me. Then I thought I should just make new characters, but they would just show up once in awhile and they would not be as appealing as the Disney characters around them. Since that was the case, I came upon the idea of using Final Fantasy characters to choose which characters that would fit the roles."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Art Gallery Comments; Tetsuya Nomura: "In the early stages, I had planned for this role to be played by Rikku from FFX. However, something happened and we had to quickly shuffle Yuffie, who originally had a different role, into this one." / "This role was planned to be played by Aya from Parasite Eve until halfway through, but due to requests from staff who had worked on FFVII, Aerith was made to appear."
