Kingdom Hearts Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 November, 2002

Review - Tom always did want to be Alice in Wonderland

Version tested: PlayStation 2

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 8 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Blerk #1 9 years ago

    Surround sound - no, although the borders create that impression

    Wow, that's clever! ;-)

  • Blerk #2 9 years ago

    But seriously folks... this one's making me lose sleep. Love Square. Hate Disney. Love Square. Hate Disney.... Oh, what am I to do?
    :-(
    Edited by 1 at 12/11/02 @ 14:11

  • Phreedh #3 9 years ago

    This seems to be just as complete and utter pants as I first thought it would be when I heard about it.

    /Phreedh

  • Killerbee #4 9 years ago

    But seriously folks... this one's making me lose sleep. Love Square. Hate Disney. Love Square. Hate Disney.... Oh, what am I to do?

    Do the same as me - I'm not really into all the schmaltzy Disney stuff, but as you say - it's a Square game so for that reason alone I'll buy it. And although it is crappy and inexcusable, I'll put up with the borders once again...

  • Shinji #5 9 years ago

    Speaking as someone in the "Love Square, Hate Disney" camp myself, I really enjoyed it...

  • Tricky #6 9 years ago

    Wow - is everyone on the EG boards a cynical old curmudgeon? What the hell's wrong with Disney? Nothing I tell you! Even the stinkers (Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Fox and the Hound) have a certain charm to them. Or do you all model yourselves after Scrooge McDuck? (Bah - humbug) ;-)

  • Shinji #7 9 years ago

    Cynical old curmudgeon? Not at all - I just prefer movies that don't suck. :)

  • ssuellid #8 9 years ago

    Disney make some good stuff - its the company thats evil not the product.

  • Killerbee #9 9 years ago

    Actually, I've enjoyed many Disney films. The stuff they've done with Pixar (Toy Story 1 & 2 and Monsters Inc) have all been great. The Lion King had some great songs in it (I had "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" at my wedding! Aaaahhhhh...), ditto the Little Mermaid and I even managed to endure listening to Phil Collins long enough to think Tarzan was okay. And stuff like the Jungle Book will never age. Unfortunately there has been a lot of rubbish as well - Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan etc.

    Whatever, the animation from Disney is always first class and although I'll have to see it to really believe it, I'm willing to accept that Kingdom Hearts' mix of Square and Disney characters really does work.
    Edited by 1 at 12/11/02 @ 14:53

  • Blerk #10 9 years ago

    I was also a bit concerned about the 'AI companions'. You had two of these in 'Star Ocean - The Second Story' and they were just USELESS! Battles went something like this :

    1. Enter a fight, start fighting, get killed while companions sit at the back and watch.
    2. Enter a fight, start fighting, companions immediately blow all MP on huge attack spells even though there's only one teenie-tiny enemy.
    3. Enter a fight, start fighting, companions begin to attack end-of-level boss monster with a small stick and get killed immediately, leaving you to try to finish the battle without anyone to heal you.
    4. Turn off game.

    Please tell me it's not like that!

  • Tricky #11 9 years ago

    Okay... it's not like that (i have no idea whether it is or not 'cos I haven't played it but you did ask us to tell you that).

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #12 9 years ago

    its the company thats evil not the product.

    If everyone thought like that, we'd all be happily using IE by now ;)

    Just kidding, put the pitchforks down... aiiiiiiieeeeee!

  • simiankid #13 9 years ago

    I quite liked the chipmunks. But only in Rescue Rangers.

  • Scientist #14 9 years ago

    "this is the best thing since Final Fantasy X"
    What exactly does that mean? The best Square game since FFX?

  • Scientist #15 9 years ago

    Blaming Square Europe for the developer's ignorance of Europe is not fair. The people at Square Europe want decent conversions; it's the primadonna coders who refuse to play ball.

  • BartonFink #16 9 years ago

    Just pretend it's widescreen :)

  • Blerk #17 9 years ago

    Aren't the PAL conversions all done at Square Europe, though?

  • BartonFink #18 9 years ago

    Just goes to show how much SCEE care about their European conversions.
    As Paul Daniels (irritating little w*nker) would say 'not a lot' :)

  • valli #19 9 years ago

    Do the same as me - I'm not really into all the schmaltzy Disney stuff, but as you say - it's a Square game so for that reason alone I'll buy it.

    The way it looks now, FFX was my last Square game. Their awful treatment of PAL-land (borders, delays and all) and stupid moves (linearity in FFX, FFX-2) made me lose all interest. Too bad, since the fight system in FFX had been polished to perfection. The only thing that will make me buy another Square game is a decent PAL conversion of a new FF or a FFVI/FFVII remake.

    As long as people buy their badly converted, 1,5 years delayed games, Square won't do a thing about it. The same goes for SCEE, they could really put some pressure on the "primadonnas" (good word, Scientist!) at Square's HQ in Japan!
    Edited by 1 at 12/11/02 @ 16:58

  • Scientist #20 9 years ago

    Square Europe does game translations and localisation testeing, web site translations and QA with the odd bit of marketing in conjunction with SCEE.
    There is no development over here, so blame Japan.

  • ssuellid #21 9 years ago

    "translations and localisation testeing"

    Is that to ensure we get a bollox localisation?

  • girl_gamer #22 9 years ago

    Hmm. This is tricky. I'm going to stereotype myself and say that even as a girl I'm not sure I can bring myself to buy a game with Disney characters in regardless of how much I love Square. Not least because I have a deep suspicion of any large branded character being involved with games in any form.

    /me shudders at the thought of cel-shaded Tweenie action.

  • skalmanxl #23 9 years ago

    But seriously folks... this one's making me lose sleep. Love Square. Hate Disney. Love Square. Hate Disney.... Oh, what am I to do?
    :-(

    It's a good adventure that's being held back by technical problems. Specially the jerky controls, the sloggy and borderfilled 50 hz and the awful camera.

    If you want it, import it.

  • Henrik #24 9 years ago

    Poor PAL conversions shouldn't get approved for release by SCEE in the first place.

  • Feanor #25 9 years ago

    Can anyone who's played this please tell me what the Squall cameo involves? What kind of stuff he says and so forth.

  • GordonJ #26 9 years ago

    Think I'll give square a miss for now (unless the title includes the words 'tactics' or 'front mission')

    Not really that bothered about the borders, as in most cases you can hit the zoom button (on a widescreen tv) and it will fit the screen quite nicely.

    But the unintentional super deformed look gets tiring, especially when you see screenshots of the ntsc versions.
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/02 @ 08:34

  • valli #27 9 years ago

    jt wrote:
    I enjoy Eurogamer even as a North American gamer and I'd like to know what this border and 60 Hz thing is all about with a little history. Can anybody provide me with an explination/link?

    Found this FAQ about the PSX conversions (look for the "NTSC and PAL Screen Size Issues" header), same goes for PS2, except the lines number which should be 480 for NTSC and 576 for PAL.

    http://www.guybrush.demon.co.uk/videofaq/PSX_Fram erate_FAQ.html

    It is a bit of work, but should be nothing for a company like Square.

  • skalmanxl #28 9 years ago

    Well, I'll probably replace my review copy of Kingdom Hearts with a NTSC version when I've gotten the machine modded.

    Despite the technical flaws, it is a magic adventure. If only the camera and controls where flawless.

  • BartonFink #29 9 years ago

    And why don't they do good PAL conversions? Simple answer is Square don't give a crap about PAL conversions.

  • skalmanxl #30 9 years ago

    And why don't they do good PAL conversions? Simple answer is Square don't give a crap about PAL conversions.

    True, and they don't care for 60hz either. Bastards.

  • Machiavel #31 9 years ago

    Rented this one - and found the first few hours to be largely tedious (at least when I was in control and had to a-gather mushrooms or batter the X button). I felt a similar reaction to FFX - I know there's goodness in it, but it seems an awful lot of effort to eek out the moments of reward. I perservered with FFX, probably won't bother with this one.

    However, only made it to the Woods in the Alice level (and I note Tom's comments about it probably being the worst) so if anybody wants to assure me that the reward/effort ratio tilts in my favour later on, please do.

  • sam_spade #32 9 years ago

    I don't mind borders. Frankly, there is enough going on between the black slabs to keep me occupied. You lot must be looking at the wrong part of the screen.

  • peejay #33 8 years ago

    I hope king mickey is a playable character.