Kingdom Hearts

Overview
Kingdom Hearts is a collaboration between Square-Enix and Disney. It is an action RPG that includes appearances of characters from the Final Fantasy series and Disney movies, as well as some characters original to the game. It was created in 2002 and became a smash hit. It was followed up by a sequel released in 2005, Kingdom Hearts II. Also in the series is a "bridge" game between the two, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, released in 2004.

Gameplay
Despite the fact that the game features Disney and Final Fantasy characters, the gameplay more closely resembles that of the Seiken Densetsu ("Mana") series.

Plot
A 14 year old boy, Sora, and his friends Riku and Kairi build a raft on their home island of Destiny Islands, because they wish to travel to other exciting places. However, on the night before setting out, the Heartless, beings without hearts, attacked and destroyed the island. Sora then meets up with Donald and Goofy, who are on a mission to find King Mickey [ Mouse], and together they travel through various worlds. On the way, they fight various Disney villains, like Jafar, Captain Hook, and Maleficent. The game ends with defeating Ansem.

Sora
A 14 year old boy who dreams of seeing other worlds. He gets his wish after the heartless destroy his home. He travels to various Disney worlds with Donald and Goofy. He wields the Keyblade, a weapon capable of harming the heartless and sealing worlds.

Donald
A magician who is a friend of Sora's. He is searching for King Mickey by traveling to various worlds with the gummi ship. A very powerful partner magic wise.

Goofy
A good friend of Sora's. He is also searching for King Mickey. A very powerful comrade defense wise, but not very high attack.

King Mickey
Not much is known about him except that he is the King of Disney Castle. He mysteriously disappeared and left a note telling Donald and Goofy to find the Keyblade Master.

Main Story-line Villains

 * Jafar (from "Aladdin")
 * Oogie Boogie (from "The Nightmare Before Christmas")
 * Ursula (from "The Little Mermaid")
 * Captain Hook (from "Peter Pan")
 * Hades (from "Hercules")
 * Chernabog (from "Fantasia")
 * Maleficent (from "Sleeping Beauty")
 * Riku (original character)
 * Ansem (original character)

Minor Story-line Villains

 * Clayton (from "Tarzan")
 * Queen of Hearts (from "Alice in Wonderland")
 * Cloud (from Final Fantasy VII)
 * Cerberus (from "Hercules")
 * Cave of Wonders (from "Aladdin")
 * Flotsam (from "The Little Mermaid")
 * Jetsam (from "The Little Mermaid")
 * Sora's shadow (original "character", take on Peter Pan's shadow, which also has a life of its own)
 * Lock (from "The Nightmare Before Christmas")
 * Shock (from "The Nightmare Before Christmas")
 * Barrell (from "The Nightmare Before Christmas")

Main Heartless

 * Darkside
 * Trickmaster
 * Stealth Sneak
 * Pot Centipede
 * Behemoth

Final Fantasy Characters

 * Tidus
 * Wakka
 * Selphie
 * Squall
 * Yuffie
 * Aerith (Aeris)
 * Cloud
 * Cid
 * Sephiroth
 * Vivi

Main Disney Heroes

 * Tarzan
 * Aladdin
 * Ariel
 * Jack Skellington
 * Peter Pan
 * Beast

Summons)
Throughout his travels, Sora finds summon gems, which he can bring to the Fairy Godmother, and be granted a summon from the gem. In reallity, the gem is the heart of the summon, created when the heart of a world is devoured by the Heartless, but with the heart of one of the residents being to strong to die.


 * Simba
 * Tinkerbell
 * Genie (Aquired through completing a world, rather than from a summon gem)
 * Bambi
 * Dumbo
 * Mushu

Worlds

 * Destiny Islands (Original World)
 * Traverse Town (Original, but mostly Final Fantasy)
 * Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland)
 * Olympus Coliseum (Hercules)
 * Deep Jungle (Tarzan)
 * Agrabah (Aladdin)
 * Atlantica (The Little Mermaid)
 * Halloween Town (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
 * Monstro (The whale from "Pinocchio")
 * Neverland (Peter Pan)
 * Hollow Bastion (Original World and the real home of Final Fantasy characters)
 * End of the World (Mostly Fantasia)
 * 100 Acre Wood (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh)

Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix is a Japanese re-release, which was made in response to the US/EU versions of Kingdom Hearts, which had several extra features that the original Kingdom Hearts from Japan didn't have. The Kingdom Hearts development Team then decided to make the same features in Final Mix, as well as several other things to tie up any lose ends of the story nicely, hence the title "Final Mix".

New Features
New Bosses Ice Titan, Kurt Zisa and Sephiroth, all of whom were in the US/EU versions, were added to Final Mix along with one of the hooded members of Organization XIII (the antagonists in KH: Chain of Memories and KHII), who can be fought at Hollow Bastion. The closest the US/EU versions got to this, was seeing the hodded members in the secret ending movie "Another Side, Another Story".

Enemy Changes The stats of all the enemies have been changed, making the harder to beat, as well as giving them a new colour scheme.

New Heartlees Six completely new hearless had been made, including the hearless seen in the secret ending movie "Another Side, Another Story" called NEO-Shadow, who are the only Heartless in the game that seem like to be having actual teamwork while fighting.

Additional Secret Ending To the original secret ending, new scenes had been added as well as an addition to the title, now called "''Another Side, Another Story [ Deep Dive]"

New Cutscenes Slightly more focus was put on Riku, as he was "left out" for the greater first half of the game, so there has been made 3 new cutscenes focused on him. A new cutscene was also added of Cloud and Sephiroth fighting, which can be seen if the player defeats Sephiroth.

More Dialog More dialog has been added to explain some of the things that might have left the player in the dark by the original story. For example, Aerith explains that Cloud has returned to look for, not Aerith, but Sephiroth (which he continues to do in KHII).

New Keyblades Two new keyblades were introduced, both given Final Fantasy inspired names. The first is aquired by defeating Sephiroth and is fittingly called One-Winged Angel, which is the name of Sephiroth's theme. The second is obtained by defeating the Ice Titan and is named Diamond Dust after Shiva's attack when summoned.

Gummi Ship Missions Actual missions were added to the Gummi Shop mini-game, which must be played whenever the player wishes to travel to a neighbouring world, without using Warp. This gave more of a point to the mini-game, as well as making it more enjoyable. A more advanced version of these mission made its appearence in the US and EU in KHII.

Extra Ansem Reports Three additional Ansem Reports where added to the game. One of these reports gives a bit perspective to who Kairi is and how she came to the island, the two others make clear references to the two sequals of Kingdom Hearts, but it's doubtful that anyone would realize this, without actually having played at least KHII.

New Abilities Sora has gained 10 new abilities to add to his already impressive arsenal of abilities. One of them has a FF inspired name, Zantetsuken, which is the summon attack of Odin and later on Yojimbo.