Tuesday 20 June 2017

Kingdom Hearts Review.

Kingdom Hearts Review

Prologue
Kingdom hearts is an JRPG game with a unique art style and surprisingly additive gameplay. The game beings with a simple tutorial with a very interesting mechanic. The game allows you to make a choice right before the tutorial which takes place on a well designed stained glass platform.It asks you to pick between three different items: A wand, a shield and a sword. Each of these determine which sort of abilities your more likely to obtain during the game itself and the weapon you will fight though the tutorial with.The sword increases the likelihood of getting offensive techniques, the shield does the same but for defensive and the wand for magical. I think this was a very useful feature in the game as it allows the player to play the game there own way instead of having to adjust there style to suit the game. After this the tutorial begins and teaches you the basic mechanics of the game like moving and combat. During this you are also introduced to the Heartless which are the main enemies of the whole game but you don't yet understand anything about them. You then are forced to fight the first boss in the game which begins as your shadow but slowly starts to grow and becomes a huge heartless with glowing yellow eyes and long tentacle like hair and is totally black. This boss is very powerful considering the fact that your in a tutorial which I feel is slightly irritating for the player as it can result in you dying quite a bit. The boss can go from fun to angering very quickly but on the other hand it also improves your skills. I'm not sure whether this is a good addition to the game or not. After this mission you spawn in at Destiny Island as a young teenager called Sora. It is a tranquil place with only a small population of six are tasked with finding some items on the island by another resident Kairi and are told the first section was a dream.Whilst doing this the game also teaches you how to jump and interact with objects like boxes and other things. There are then a few more basic task to do that can run on for to long but lead up to an turn of events during these you meet Riku Sora's best friend.All of this then ends in a fight with the Heartless in there first appearance in the world and the first time you understand the reality of Sora's dream.As the Heartless attack you you're forced to fight them off in large groups using a low damage wooden sword which can be quite a task whilst also trying to find an objective that is not even visible to you that can result in you fighting your way to the end of the island only to realise that you have to go to the other end instead. The lack of a mini-map during this part can be rather irritating but luckily it is a rather small island the only thing that slows you down is the Heartless.You realise Riku is your objective when you see him standing alone on a small island just off the edge of the main island. After you reach him you have some dialogue were Sora say you have to find Kairi but Riku begins talking about how the door has opened and that Kairi is coming with him to the outside world as he steps into the darkness he sinks before disappearing completely. This is when again the gigantic Heartless appears again and once more you have to fight him but this time light shines from Sora's hand and the Keyblade (the main weapon of the game) is there in place of the wooden sword. The fight again is difficult but is made slightly easier because of the Keyblade. The fight picks up and the island your on begins to fly and the Heartless becomes enraged and does more damage it also becomes slightly more relentless using more powerful attacks. Eventually the fight ends and a black hole is created in the sky that sucks Sora into it. The fight itself is fun and has clear stages that the boss goes though but I don't feel it has a satisfying ending instead your left with the fight being unresolved and Sora simply leaving the situation. In Conclusion the prologue does its job and teaches you the mechanics of the game very well whilst also managing to remain a challenge. I think it can last a little to long and the fetch quests during this time can be slightly annoying but its still a well done prologue.

Mechanics
The game itself has a lot of unique mechanics many of which are in different parts of the game. The most unique of which is the combat. It mixes both RPG type combat and Hack 'n' Slash this results in simple combat system that gives you the ability to use magic as well as special skills and summons. The game allows you to do this by a menu it the bottom left corner of the screen. Although this can be a little tricky to get the hang of at first but you eventually begin to understand it. You Select each of these with the X button meaning most of the combat is just you pressing X although and scroll though the options using the D-Pad. Trying to use this can be slow when trying to use spells as you are still being attacked and this can end up with you taking damage this is every problematic when you trying to heal. To counter this there is an options menu that allows you to lot of different things from changing your gear to setting up shortcuts for your spells.This is a very useful feature because you can cast spells far quicker than you can from the menu. The customisation menu allows you to change your Keyblade  and your items that each have different effects on things like defence and magic resistance. This is an decent feature that can really help you in battles as many of the bosses use magic attacks that rings,necklaces and other items can help protect you from different element types. They can also boost things like your attack power as well. Abilities are also one of the most important features in the game although they don't equip by themselves so you have to go into your menu quite a bit but you now also need to watch your AP. Your AP is the games way of making sure Sora cannot become to powerful using his abilities it also has to be that way because some abilities are linked to the same button for example the Square button can be used for both the dodge skill and the guard. Both of which can be very useful but the dodge is an easier skill to use as the guard resembles and works more like a parry meaning you have to time your press perfectly. The game also has a summoning feature which you can use in order to create very powerful Disney characters which each have different abilities that can be amazingly useful on the battlefield.

Characters

Sora: Sora is the main character of the game and this allows you to understand him better. He is a teenager that has a bright personality and a strong sense of justice. He is also very caring towards his friends. As the wielder of the Keyblade he is also very strong in battle.
Kairi: Kairi is one of Sora's friends on the island and serves as the princess in distress during the story as you fight your way though the game to find both her and Riku. Kairi has a playful personality and before the island was destroyed she wanted to go and she the rest of the world her self.
Riku: Riku is Sora's best friend and seems to have a calm chilled out personality that results in him always seeming confident in beating his foes which included Sora during the events of the first game. He has the ability to use a Keyblade as well near the end of the game.
Donald: Donald is the iconic Disney character. His personality remains the same as it normally is. He is a grand mage in service of the king and later a friend of Sora's. He can be a bit arrogant and gets irritated easily but he will always have Sora's back.
Goofy: Goofy is again a well known Disney character he can be as his name suggests rather goofy but somehow still see things other miss. He is a royal guard that also works for the king and uses a shield to fight and just like Donald he has Sora's back.

Plot twists
The story after the prologue has its fair share of plot twists but they don't start until your quite far into the game. This can make the beginning of the game feel slightly uneventful. The first twist comes in when you finish the one of the many worlds the game has to offer. The game revivals that the true enemies of the game are not the heartless but the Disney villains everybody hated as a child. After this another villain is introduced to us Riku this happens on captain hook's boat when Riku shows up for the first time after Density island we also find out that Kairi is also in the boat after this you fight Hook and Riku escapes. The next big twist is the princess's being kidnapped and the reason they are being used. To open the door into infinite darkness. Final twist that someone named Ansem is pulling the strings and is the one who what's to open the door and also takes over Riku who because of this gets a Keyblade that opens peoples hearts. The final results I'm the door open and the information that Sora has Kairis heart. Kairi awakes but King Micky and Riku get stuck in the other world and the game finishes.

Gameplay
The gameplay is a mix between an RPG and a Hack 'n' Slash game. The combat plays out in real time and every kill gets you EXP (Experience points) which lets you level up and gain skills that you can later use in combat like the dodge roll. Enemies usually spawn in groups of a few low level Heartless and one or two more powerful Heartless. Although this is normal the game also has a lot of bosses that give you far more EXP a lot of the EXP you gain will be from farming as you need money to buy items like Potions which are very handy although you can find potions and other items in chest scattered around the world. As well as combat the game has quite a few puzzles that you have to do which are key to proceeding though the worlds. Each puzzle is the perfect difficultly some of them leaving you stumped for a while. They even use the map layout itself to confuse the player. Moving between worlds results in a mini game. You control a spaceship and are tasked with flying though space whilst fighting off the heartless ships and not letting your HP 0. This gives you something to do whilst the game loads instead of watching a loading screen.

Level Design 
The games levels are spilt into different worlds all of which allow you to move freely around all of the areas but some of the doors may be  locked until after you complete a certain objective or find another way around and the game will let you walk though the door from that side unlocking it for later uses. Each world contains about 7 different sections that you have to work though without any sort of idea of where you have to go without finding the map of the area in each level. The levels are designed around Disney movies and each one tries very hard to recreate the worlds from the movies which I feel it does really well. Each world is beautifully designed and well thought out all the platforms will lead you to an item or a door. The look of each world fits perfectly into the game due to the art style. The game has chests for you to collect but because there are not many of them so when you do find one it feels special because of how rare they are.

Conclusion
In conclusion the game is very well balanced and the difficultly spikes are never to high. The maps are well designed and fun to explore but this is not to say the game has no issues for example the camera can get caught on objects and makes it very hard to focus on the enemy you're trying to kill. With all this said this game is still one of my personal favourites and it has a good yet sometimes confusing story that is quite enjoyable.





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