Video Game Series Review: Kingdom Hearts (1-Dream Drop Distance)

OK so seeing as I won't be doing a series review of Final Fantasy anytime soon (due to the fact that I've only played a select number of games and that they don't make much sense seeing as there are a lot of them anyway), I thought to do Kingdom Hearts instead. It's the closest you're going to get from Final Fantasy (that's all I can say). When I heard about this series, my initial thoughts were "Well its another Disney game and it's probably going to suck". And I was wrong entirely. This is one of those Disney games that shows its true colours and makes a lot of Disney haters look bad. Is it any good? Well in honour of its 10th anniversary, we're going to find out:

I would just like to point out that I've only ever played 358/2 Days, Coded (DS Version) and Dream Drop Distance from the series due to the fact that (at the time) I was a Nintendo gamer, but as of 2017, I have now played all the games that have come out so far, albeit not on their original platforms for some of them.

Kingdom Hearts

Serving as the first game of the series, this one shows how the main protagonist Sora becomes a Key Blade wielder and how he becomes aware of other worlds alongside his friends Riku and Kari. We also see how he comes to know Mickey (described as the king of Disney Castle which is in its own world and is a key blade wielder himself) and his loyal servants/best friends Donald and Goofy (the latter being party members of Sora). A number of the worlds seen in the game are based on the more animated Disney films and all of them mirror the plot of the original films and have the official cast members of the films doing the voices of the characters residing in the worlds. The main antagonist is Maleficent who many people will know for being the villain in Sleeping Beauty and in Kingdom Hearts, she gains control of the Heartless (enemies who as described by their names, have no heart) and plans to use the Seven Princesses of Heart (the majority of which are the Disney Princesses) to open the portal to darkness, with help from a group of villains that she herself has formed which consists of herself, Jafar (from Aladdin), Ursula (from Little Mermaid), Hades (from Hercules), Captain Hook (from Peter Pan) and Oogie Boogie (From Nightmare Before Christmas). As the game progresses, there will be more to the story that will surprise people. That's really all I can say on that. It is a fine game. Gameplay can be a bit off at times, but anybody who loves Disney and is good at RPGs will have lots of fun here. 9/10

Chain of Memories

Chain of Memories serves as a direct sequel to the last game and is the first game to have Riku as a playable character as well as Sora (both of which have different but near the same story). After having left Kari, Sora journeys to the mysterious Castle Oblivion with Donald and Goofy where he begins to lose his memory and finds out about a secret organisation who have plans for Sora which can have fatal consequences. Simultaneously, Riku (now out of the darkness) wants revenge on Ansem and he then ventures into the castle to do so, but unlike Sora, he doesn't lose his memories and later on, he is helped by King Mickey. While not as great as the first game (for various reasons), this one is still fun to play. But you seriously need to play other games in the series to understand anything in this game. You'll thank me later. 8/10

Kingdom Hearts II

As the next major instalment, we see Roxas, a Nobody (which is a being that lost its heart to the darkness and can be seen with body and soul. More information can be found here) who is in a alternative, virtual version of the world Twilight Town (a original world that is the birthplace of Roxas and many Nobodies). He encounters Axel (a friend that he used to know. Reference from Gotye's song there) who begs him to return to the organisation which has been revealed to be known as Organisation XIII. Sora, Donald and Goofy awaken after a year of reconstruction to continue their quest to find the king and Riku while battling the resurrected Maleficent and her sidekick Pete as well as the remains of Xehanort and the remaining members of Organisation XIII. With a couple of new worlds to add to some old ones, this game is great but I often find that while it is bigger than the first game, you'll be spending half the time, going to each world twice instead of once during the story. This is not necessarily a big deal, but it can get repetitive at times. Otherwise, its the best game in the series so far. 9/10

358/2 Days

Simultaneously taking place towards the end of KH1, all the way through COM and before KH2, we see Roxas working as the 13th member of the organisation doing various jobs on other worlds, either on his own, or assisted by other members of the organisation to gather hearts for the organisation to awaken Kingdom Hearts and start another Key Blade War. While this has a step down in terms of graphics and gameplay, its still fun to enjoy and shows us what happened during the year before Sora's awakening and also introduces us to Xion, the mysterious 14th member made by using Sora's memories. 8/10

Birth By Sleep

As the prequel to KH1, this explains many of the plot holes and questions left unanswered, such as how O13 was formed, how Maleficent was aware of other worlds, what connects the seven princesses of heart together, how important Yen Sid is to the story, what are the true origins of Xehanort and a number of others while at the same time, introducing us to 3 more key blade wielders who travel to other worlds to stop enemies known as the Unversed (more on them can be found here). Need I say more. With the addition of some new worlds and many plot holes resolved in this game, ultimately its another big Kingdom Hearts game that fans will appreciate and praise for a while thanks to it allowing the franchise's story to make more sense than what it already was. 9/10

Coded

Serving as a direct follow up to KH2, this game resolves some things that happened in COM. Jiminy Cricket (one of the main characters from Pinocchio who has a major "behind the scenes" role in the series) has compiled two journals that explain the many adventures that Sora had during KH1 and KH2. He then later finds something that wasn't put into the diary in the first place and then has Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the two beavers, Chip and Dale use technology to develop a digital, simulated version of the diaries and sends a Data version of Sora to investigate the various worlds and get rid of the bugs in them. The bugs take the form of either blocks which Sora can use to his advantage, or take the form of Heartless, with some Heartless looking more like data than the creature its meant to be, which makes them stronger and take other forms (sometimes to even look like Sora). Additionally, various and different gameplay mechanics have been put in for each world to make the game fresh. Now as this was released for mobiles originally, I just waited for the DS version to come out, and I was very impressed with it. It's a fresh game in the series that feels more of a spin off and tidy up to KH2 more than anything else. Still good though. 8/10

Dream Drop Distance

Currently the most recent game in the series and (hopefully) the last before KH3 (which is no longer the case if you're reading this after 2017), Sora and Riku take on the Mark of Mastery exam that Yen Sid has prepared for them and like with before, he sends them to worlds that have been restored thanks to Sora and Co but are in what's known as a deep sleep. With both characters sent to each of the worlds but not in the same version of them (with a drop out sequence made to automatically switch between characters at certain points), they begin their exam. Along the way, the two come across creatures known as Dream Eaters (name says it all) who come in two forms (Nightmares, which are the enemy versions of them and Spirits, which are the friendly versions of them who are recruited as party members for Sora and Riku and additional ones can be made using various ingredients, while the AR functionality of the 3DS can be used for players to interact with them). They also come across what seems to be Xehanort in a younger form which gives the impression that he is returning. With the exception of the original Kingdom Hearts worlds already seen earlier on, all the Disney worlds are brand new (with some of them being a continuation of previous worlds such as The Grid and Prankster's Paradise). This game is another big game in the series and gives us a feel of what KH3 will hopefully be like so look forward to that. 9/10

Overall, so far, the series has had its ups and downs but overall, is a great series and will be one of the finest Disney moments, ever created. 9/10