Kingdom Hearts
Title: Kingdom Hearts
System: Playstation 2
Company: Squaresoft
North America Release: September 17, 2002
Players: 1
Rating: T for Teen
Discs: 1
The story of Kingdom Hearts begins with a boy protagonist named Sora experiencing a sequence of strange events. He then awakens to find himself on the beach of Destiny Islands, a group of islands that he and his friends use as a hangout. A girl around his age named Kairi then startles him and he explains what happened to him. She asks him if he is still dreaming, and Sora considers the fact that he may have been dreaming even though it felt real to him. Another male voice is heard, and their friend Riku makes his way over to them. The three are building a raft as well as making preparations to leave their small islands and travel the world together. Or worlds, rather. Riku is bored of their tiny part of the world and wants to see what else is out there thanks to Kairi coming to them from another land. The trinity of friends decides to go home for the day and set sail the next.
Sora is still troubled by his “dream”, and then realizes there is a bad storm outside. He immediately jumps up thinking of their raft, and takes a boat to make his way to Destiny Islands. Sora notes that Riku and Kairi’s boats are both docked and he goes to search for them. Strange shadow-like creatures appear and Sora’s wooden sword seems to have no effect on them. He finds Riku gazing at the sky, and tries to get him to find Kairi with him. Riku simply tells him that she will be coming with them, and this is their chance to finally see what else is out there. He lets himself be engulfed by the darkness and reaches his hand out to Sora. Sora tries to reach him, but he is also stuck in the darkness and cannot. Seconds later he finds himself on the ground holding a mysterious keyblade, and Riku gone. Making his way to their secret hideout, he finds Kairi standing almost soullessly. Sora calls out to her and she slowly turns around until the door behind her whips open and a huge gust of wind throws her forward. He reaches his arms out to grab her, but she goes right through him. Sora is then pushed out as well. Sora then finds himself on a broken piece of Destiny Islands facing a huge shadow creature that at first resembled him in combat. Once he defeats it, he is knocked unconscious.
Sora comes to in an alley after being licked by a strange dog. He wonders where he is, as the area is not familiar to him at all. Wandering out from the alley, he is attacked by a man who wishes for the keyblade. Sora is yet again knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds himself with a young woman and the same man from before. Yuffie and Squall explain that the shadow creatures are called heartless, and they will be attracted to him so long as he continues to wield the keyblade. They do not have long to converse, as the heartless find them and they must fight. Sora ends up having a crash landing with Disney’s Donald and Goofy. The two were sent by King Mickey to find “the key” and stick with it. After their teamwork is tested by a large heartless, Sora decides to join forces with them in order to find Riku and Kairi. He does not yet realize where fate will pull him in his quest for his friends…
With tons of familiar Disney and Squaresoft characters, wonderful and detailed worlds and an exciting and constantly unfolding plot, Kingdom Hearts is a great game. I myself am not a huge gamer, but I found myself unable to remove myself from the Playstation once I finally got my hands on it. It is an amazing action RPG series, so if you have yet to actually try it, I would definitely suggest doing it.
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