The last PS2 game I got to play before mine broke. Honestly I thought it was going to be cheesy and lame but it surprisingly was quite enjoyable. I never got around to playing any of the sequels or spinoffs but I am not against doing it sometime.

"gawrsh, Sora. who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man, n'yaho!" I'm a fucking idiot for enjoying this series as much as I do. which is to say, at all.

A clunky, mediocre game notable only for its Disney gimmick.

Insufferable story and boring gameplay, but at least it looks good.

I remember my friend lending this to me bragging at the time it's like the best ever etc. I just couldn't get into the game.

LMAO

Nice game.

A complete disaster for me in almost every way. The gameplay is rigid and uninspired and the """story""" deserves more quotes than I gave it. The ""characters"" it introduces are terrible as well and even the Disney crap can't save this either. Square does what it can with this formula but everything is just so bad that it doesn't matter.

With the franchise at large, either you are on board or not. You either get it or don't. I was fascinated by the tale at large when trying to crossover the multiverses of Disney and Square Enix. The characters are truly the driving force of the series as they are completely fleshed out and likable. The plot is pretty fundamental in this beginning chapter but it's the best place to start. The camera was a little too focused on Sora and the platforming was iffy but the thrill of battle was great

As action RPGs go. Nothing has quite hit the level the Kingdom Hearts games have. This first installment has a few control issues. Overshadowed completely by an amazing storyline, wonderful graphics and a pitch perfect voice cast to walk us through the many many cutscenes.

Very slow beginning, FF/Disney use of characters seems superflous and absurd most of the time, controls are improvable, not exactly an action-RPG (sort of improvable platform/beat'em with minor RPG elements), story is not that interesting... Gameplay anyway is entertaining once you start having the possibility of discovering worlds, and artistically is a beautiful game, but I don't know, I certainly expected something better in many aspects.

Liked what I played, which was only a few levels

The first game is more primitive than its sequels but has a much better and more self-contained story, and yet still ends up being dumb as hell. Maybe it helps that I played it at the right age and I can easily see myself hating it were I to play it for the first time today, but this game will always be special to me for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. Recommend the Final Mix as the original vanilla release has not aged that well.

This game doesn't need to exist. It doesn't enrich us as people. It doesn't benefit our culture. The gameplay is so insipid that it's not even fun. Kingdom Hearts is only a way for Disney to push its brand on the masses and synergise its IPs to make MONEY. Square Enix gave it some flavour but that flavour is sprinkled on shit. This franchise was the harbinger of the current Western mediascape dominated by that goddamned empty, heartless mouse.

Really nostalgic for this game, and it's still enjoyable today. The platforming was awful and its combat was a lot less refined compared to its sequel, but the game has some fun boss battles, fun enemy design, and utilizes the Disney license brilliantly. The plot is pretty stupid, but I've grown to find the plot of these games ironically enjoyable for how over the top and lame it is. The first game was a lot tamer in this respect unfortunately, but it still has its moments.

A pretty significant game for me when I was younger. Revisiting makes me question a ton of design decisions (awkward platforming, really arbitrary progress triggers that make you wander back and forth), but it still is enjoyable despite all the problems.

Maybe it hasn't aged particularly gracefully, but the basic idea of doing a crossover between FF and Disney is so out there that it still feels fresh here fifteen years later. I would give a higher score if it wasn't for all those stupid jump puzzles.