Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is a play of action RPG published on PlayStation 2 by Square Co. (from now on Public garden Enix) and developped at the point by Public garden in Interactive collaboration with Disney. One thus finds there a pleiad of Disney hero, but also of the characters of the universe of the famous series of RPG Final Fantasy of Public garden.

History

Sora, Riku and Kairi are three friends living on an small island called Île of the Destiny. Dreaming of vaster adventure and worlds, they decide to build a raft in order to leave their island from which they were quickly wearied. But the night preceding their departure, the island is attacked by strange creature. Riku disappears in a flood from darkness, whereas Kairi volitilizes curiously.

In another world, the Castle Disney, the magician of the court, Donald, discovers that the king disappeared, leaving behind him a letter explaining why the stars disappeared with one and that was sign ill omen. The king had decided to leave to be able to arrange the situation, it entrusted nevertheless a task to Donald: to find the carrier of the key. The key would be the means of making return peace in the worlds and of moving away them from darkness. Donald thus leaves accompanied by the chief the royal guard Dingo to research by the key and his carrier.

Sora awakes, only in an unknown world, the Town of Cross-piece, it has a strange weapon with the hand, a kind of sword in the shape of key. An young man of the name of Leon (but his true name is Squall) accompanied by an young girl named Youffie (characters of Final Fantasy VIII and VII respectively) presents himself to our hero and explains to him that its island was attacked by Heartless persons. These creatures would be beings of darkness the purpose of which would be to steal the heart of people and to destroy the various worlds while entering by the Locks. The weapon whose Sora inherited would be Keyblade, a key making it possible to lock the Locks of the worlds to prevent the Heartless persons from stealing the heart of people.

In the Town of Cross-piece, at the same time, Nutcase and Donald are made challenge by an young girl of the name of Aerith (Final Fantasy VII), it explains to them that the key that he seeks and in this city, with its carrier: Sora. Sora, Donald and Dingo find themselves, and decide to leave in the various worlds in order to lock the Locks, and at the same time to seek the King, Riku and Kairi.

They visit the worlds of the deep Jungle thus (Tarzan), of the Country of the Wonders (Alice to the country of the wonders), of Colisée of Olympe (Hercules), of Agrabah (Aladdin), of the Town of Halloween (strange Christmas of Mr Jack), of Atlantica (the Small Siren), of Monstro (Pinocchio), of the Imaginary Country (Peter Pan), of the Forest of the blue Dreams (Winnie the bear cub) and the Locks close some. They also attend removals by the Heartless persons of Alice and the Jasmine princess, without including/understanding the reason of it.

During their tour, they recover sheets, the Reports/ratios of Ansem. This man was a scientist who lengthily studied the Heartless persons. The trio thus seeks to find it. They will also cross time in another Riku, which seems more and more attracted by Darkness.

Whereas they arrive in the world of the Forgotten Fortress, they precisely meet Riku, which takes Keyblade and enters the castle. Donald and Dingo, according to the orders of their King, accompany Riku and leave Sora, only with for only weapon his sword of wood, with which he played on the Island of the destiny. But it makes the meeting of the Animal, a being whose world was destroyed by the Heartless persons and who comes to begin again its liked, Belle.
When they find Riku, Sora than is more determined, and takes again Keyblade. A confrontation follows which Sora, Donald and Dingo leave victorious. Riku flees.
Whereas they explore the fortress, they meet Maléfique, a witch who controls the Heartless persons, but destroy it easily. Further, they find a room where 7 people are held, inanimate: White-snow, Cinderella, Dawn, Alice, Beautiful, Jasmine and Kairi. Riku, had by the spirit of Ansem, explains to him why these 7 young girls are the 7 Princesses of heart who will open the door towards Kingdom Hearts, the world of the hearts. It also reveals in Sora that Kairi lost its heart, and that it is held by Sora. Only Keyblade of darkness, which Riku carries, can release it. Sora beats Riku-Ansem, which flees in Darkness, seizes Keyblade d' Ansem, and releases its heart, consequently becoming occasion a Heartless person. Donald, Nutcase and Kairi escape, but Kairi recognizes Sora as Heartless person, and by its magic, makes him take again human appearance. In fact, it made so that Sora and it divide the same heart.

After having taken along Kairi to the Town of Cross-piece, Sora, Donald and Dingo take again the road of the Fortress Forgotten to close the lock of it. Then they leave at the end the worlds, where the rests of the world destroyed by the Heartless persons are. With deepest, they find Ansem, and destroy it. In the last gesture, Ansem tries to open Kingdom Hearts to gain the capacity of Darkness, but the force of the heart of Sora fills it of light, and Ansem is definitively overcome. Whereas they will close again the door, they see Riku and King Mickey on the side of darkness. They close nevertheless the door. The destroyed worlds are reformed then, taking them along far from Kairi. Sora promises to him to come to find it.

Whereas they survey a way, Sora, Donald and Dingo meet Pluto, carrying a signed letter of the seal of the King. A new adventure starts…

Gameplay

The three principal playable characters are Sora, Donald and Dingo. However, in the majority of the worlds, the player can choose to integrate in his team the hero in connection with this world (Tarzan in the deep Jungle, Aladdin with Agrabah, etc). That will be done nevertheless with the detriment of Donald or Nutcase, the team being able to comprise only three characters to the maximum and Sora being obligatory in the team.

During the engagements, the player directs only Sora, the two allied ones being controlled by the computer. The player can influence their behavior, and thus define a general tactic (like the frequency of use of the fates, competences and objects). The engagements are in real-time, displacements and actions of Sora thus are directly controlled by the player.

The system of evolution of the characters is based on obtaining points of experience, gained by overcoming the various enemies. As the quantity of experiment obtained evolves/moves, the level of the characters increases. With each change of level, characteristics of the characters (Points of Life, Attacks, Défense…) improve. They can also be increased by the equipment found during the exploration of the worlds, or bought in the shops of the Town of Cross-piece. On certain levels, the characters learn from new competences usable in combat by activating them as a preliminary. During his tour, the player will also obtain magic fates usable by Donald and Sora, as well as invocations usable by Sora.

Principal characters

  • Sora : Sora is young a fourteen year old teenager and he does not dream that of adventure and new landscape. He is since his more tender childhood the best friend of Riku but he is also his large rival. Sora is the carrier of Keyblade and it carries on its shoulders a heavy task: that of verouiller worlds, invaded by the heartless persons, with Keyblade.

  • Riku : In the beginning it was Riku which was to be the carrier of Keyblade but as its heart was corrupted by darkness, the latter chose to take Sora like carrier. Riku is made handle by Maléfique and Ansem, because of that it believes that Sora it forgot him and Kairi, Riku thus decides to go to the research of the even if it means young girl only to use the capacity of darkness.
  • Kairi : This fourteen year old young girl is a princess of heart. She comes from the forgotten fortress and lived on the island of the Destiny with Riku & Sora. During the play, Kairi lost its heart.
  • Donald Duck: Magician of the court, it has a rather irascible temperament.
  • Nutcase: Chief of the royal guard, it is enough head-in-the very honest air but towards his friends.
  • Mickey Mouse: The king, party to make research on the Heartless persons. No one does not know where it is…
  • Pluto: The faithful dog of the king. After it was involved in the vessel of Donald and Dingo, the latter lose sight of the fact it.
  • Ansem : Of its true name Xehanort, he was the assistant of Ansem the Wise one at the time of the searchs for this last on the heartless persons. He uses Riku in order to have Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix

Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix is a second version of Kingdom Hearts, exit only in Japan on December 26th 2002. It contains the whole of the small improvements of versions NTSC and STAKE (such as for example the Boss hidden), as well as many other exclusive additions: new scenes revealing certain points scenaristic, possibility of passing the scenes kinematics after having viewed them, new enemies, competences, equipment and levels of difficulty. The voices are in English and the text in Japanese.

Development team

  • Realizer: Tetsuya Nomura
  • Concept Design : Tetsuya Nomura
  • Hand Programmers : Hiroshi Harata, Kentarow Yasui
  • Map Planning Director : Takeshi Endo
  • Vent Planning Director : Jun Akiyama
  • Technical Art Director : Akira Fujii
  • Character Modeling Director : Tomohiro Kayano
  • animations Realization: Tatsuya Kando
  • Background Modeling Director : Masahide Tanaka
  • Texture Director : Takeshi Arakawa
  • Music: Yoko Shimomura
  • Battle Planning Director : Yuichi Kanemori
  • Art Director : Takayuki Odachi
  • Finely Director + VFX Supervisor : Tomohiro Ishii
  • VFX Director : Syuuichi Sato
  • Programmer sounds: Hitoshi Ohori
  • Supervising Dialogs Editor : Teruaki Sugawara
  • Sound Editor : Chiharu Minekawa, Ryo Inakura
  • Réalisteurs films: Takeshi Nozue
  • Co-producer: Yoshinori Kitase
  • Producing: Shinji Hashimoto
  • Scenario: Jun Akiyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Kazushige Nojima

Other episodes of the series

External bonds

; Official sites
  • http://www.kingdom-hearts.com

; NonOfficial sites

  • Kingdom Hearts Destiny
  • Kingdom Fantasy
  • Kingdom Hearts Island

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