Kingdom Hearts (game)
Yes, the untapped power that lies within you. Now, child, it's time you awakened that power and realized your full potential.
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| 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.
Development
Story
The game opens with Sora saying he has been having weird thoughts lately and wondering what is real. In a surreal dream-like opening, Sora is separated from his two friends; a red-haired girl named Kairi and a white-haired boy named Riku. Sora finds himself guided by a mysterious voice in a stained-glass void, which foreshadows the events that will soon take place. He ends up being swallowed by a monstrous creature, and is awakened by Kairi on the beach of Destiny Islands, revealing it was a nightmare. Riku motivates them to work on their raft in order to explore new worlds. Child versions of Final Fantasy heroes Tidus, Wakka and Selphie also inhabit the island and are willing to training Sora so he can become stronger. While fetching supplies in a cave, Sora encounters a mysterious hooded figure in a secret cave who ominously speaks that this "world" has been connected and tied to the darkness. He accuses Sora of lacking knowledge and then disappears.
That night, the islands are attacked by darkness and shadow creatures. Sora seeks out his friends, trying to battle the creatures with his wooden sword, but it's proven no use. He finds Riku, who tells Sora that this void is their way out to other worlds. Riku give his hand to Sora, but before boys can reach each other, Riku swallowed by darkness. Flash of light appears, and Sora obtains a mysterious weapon, the Keyblade. With it, he now able to defend himself. Using the Keyblade to fend off the creatures, Sora 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, but she disappears right in front of Sora before he could catch her. After the same blast knocks boy out of the cave, he fights the creature from his nightmare, meaning it was more than a simple dream. A gravitational pull sucks Sora up into the sky into the void as the world of Destiny Islands is now destroyed.
Meanwhile, King Mickey Mouse has left his world to deal with the increasing power of darkness, as the stars in the sky disappering. He left instructions for the royal mage Donald Duck and knight captain Goofy to find and follow the "key". Donald and Goofy use a Gummi Ship to travel to Traverse Town, where Sora ended up after his world is swallowed by darkness. Sora encounters the creatures again in the town, and eventually meets Leon. Leon demanding hand him the Keyblade but Sora refuse, so they fight. After battle, Leon invites Sora to his place where he could explain everything. The creatures are known as Heartless, and that they are creatures born from humans darkness and mindlessly seek to consume other hearts. It is dangerous as not only every living creature has a heart but each world also have one. He then tells Sora why the Keyblade is so important as it's the only weapon capable of defeating Heartless. The king of Leon's home world, a man named Ansem, is said to have studied the Heartless, but now he's 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 Armor.
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, finding and sealing locks, called "Keyholes", so the Heartless would not take over heart of the world. At the same time, a group of villains, led by Maleficent, seek out seven Princesses of Heart to unlock the Final Keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts - a source of ultimate knowledge and power. This group now includes Riku, who is swayed by Maleficent's speaches that she will help find Kairi. She also tells Riku that Sora has abandoned him and Kairi for his new friends and the Keyblade. During their adventures Sora and Riku cross each other a couple of times, but Riku increasingly antagonises Sora and also manages to find Kairi's body, but her heart is missing, leaving her in comatose state.
Sora and his friends eventually arrive at Hollow Bastion, a destroyed and abandoned homeworld of Ansem which now serves as the headquarters for 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, armed only with a wooded sword. Together with Beast they make their way to the castle where Sora challenges Riku again, stating that his heart derives strength from his friends. His friends return to him, as does the Keyblade. Shamed by his defeat, Riku flees back and meets same cloaked man who Sora cross back on Destiny islands. The man goads him to give in into the darkness, promising that will give him much desired strength.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy destroy Maleficent. They encounter a strangely-behaving Riku with a new Keyblade in his hands that can unlock hearts, and is made from princessess' hearts; although it's incomplete, as it lacks the Kairi's heart in it. He leads them to Kairi's living but unfeeling body; Riku then reveals himself as completely possessed by mysterious figure and reveals his name - Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. 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 Riku-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. This action turns him into a Heartless but 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. Sora seals the Final Keyhole and together with Donald and Goofy they go after Ansem.
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 challenging Sora to battle, but is defeated by trio. He falls back to the abyss surrounding the Door to Darkness, where he declares his intention to claim Kingdom Hearts for himself. Ansem appears in front of Sora, now mounted the giant battleship which he creates from darkness - 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 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.
One year later, and in a strange city, a mysterious boy wielding two Keyblades is confronted by Riku demanding to know where Sora is.
Gameplay
Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG with hack and slash gameplay. It has a lot of 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.
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. However, all this changes is the order in which these abilities are learned. Choosing which weapon to keep and sacrifice will also affect Sora's starting stats. The player will 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.
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. Note that if playing the original version of the game, there is a permanently missable Red Trinity mark in Halloween Town. 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.
Worlds and characters
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Other releases
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is an extended version of Kingdom Hearts. Released only in Japan for PlayStation 2, it uses most of the revisions made for the North American and European releases. It features other additions to the original game: a Final Fantasy X-2 trailer (named "Special Movie") on the main menu, three new Difficulty Levels: Beginner, Standard, and Proud mode, new types of Heartless and palette swaps for most returning Heartless, new Keychains and items, and a new secret boss that appears in Hollow Bastion, known only as "Unknown". It also features an expansion of the secret movie from the first game, Another Side, Another Story [deep dive], foreshadowing more of Kingdom Hearts II.
HD Remaster
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix was re-released in high definition as part of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX for PlayStation 3, and later, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The abilities Zero EXP and Combo Master were added to the game. The Summons menu was moved to the fourth Command Menu slot and the context-sensitive command that occupied that slot was replaced with Reaction Commands. The right analog stick controls the camera instead of the 
and 
buttons, similar to Kingdom Hearts II. In addition, cutscenes can be skipped now. The Final Fantasy X-2 trailer that occupied the third slot on the game's opening menu is replaced with a Back command to return to the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX game select menu. Among the models replaced, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White's were replaced with their models from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
