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It is hard to know where to start when creating a brief synopsis of the bizarre and magical game that is Kingdom Hearts. The game is a fascinating collaberation between Square and Disney, and one which works insanely well; at least, far more so than one might have presumed. It plays so well in that it is a combination of an action game and a role-playing game, and not only does the game attempt (and succeed) to capture that crazy-but-tremendous essence of Final Fantasy, but it also transmits a lot of the ‘magical’ elements of the Disney movies.

Many of the main characters, however, are brand new creations. This is key (no puns intended!) because while we may love the old characters which we have played with and watch on movies in the past, a game needs somethine new to spice things up. Enter Sora, Riku, and Kairi from the Destiny Islands!

The player will enjoy the vast spectrum of different worlds they will encounter; as well as the original Destiny Island, there is the ‘Traverse Town’, ‘Hollow Bastion’, ‘End of the World’, and ‘Disney Castle’ to enjoy.

Another celebrated factor of Kingdom Hearts is the excellent vocal cast it provides. The ‘Sixth Sense’ child Haley Joel Osment plays the main character Sora, and Kairi is played by ‘Ally McBeal’ star Hayden Panettiere. There are a number of other well recognised actors involved as well, which all adds to the ambiance of Kingdom Hearts.

Release Date: September 17, 2002.

2 GAME!


Kingdom Hearts 2 / II / KH2
Kingdom Hearts 2 (KH2) is the sequel to the hugely successful Squaresoft / Disney collaboration Kingdom Hearts which was released in 2002 on the PlayStation 2.

KH2 was released in 2005 in Japan, and 2006 in the rest of the world. KH2 was, like it’s predecessor, released on the PlayStation 2 console; however Square Co had by this time incorporated Enix into their portfolio, meaning that Kingdom Hearts II was a joint effort between Square-Enix and Disney.

Background Information
As in Kingdom Hearts, Sora is the main character and the story continues as he moves his way through the various worlds, including those derived from Disney stories. Sora proceeds through the KH2 storyline by travelling from Twilight Town, to Agrabah; from Hollow Bastion to ‘The World That Never Was’ wielding his Keyblade all the way.

On his journey, Sora meets, and is accompanied by a plethora of different characters including Disney’s Goofy and Donald, Final Fantasies Cloud and Aerith, and original cast members such as Riku and Kairi.

Storyline
(Warning: this article contains major spoilers!)
The story begins with Sora, Donald and Goofy waking up from a year-long sleep which was induced to recover their forgotten memories lost in their prior adventure. While Sora and friends slept, Sora’s “Nobody”, Roxas, has been placed in an almost parallel universe created by DiZ (also known as Ansem the Wise), in order to have Roxas merge with Sora after he awakens. This was done so that DiZ could get revenge on Organization XIII.

After waking up, Sora, Donald and Goofy are sent off by King Mickey and Yen Sid to find Riku, and to prevent Organization XIII from proceeding with their plans to abuse their control of the Nobodies. As well as this, the wicked dark fairy Maleficent is resurrected, and with the help of Pete endeavors to gain supreme power.

While Sora and friends are traversing their way throughout the kingdom, Kairi was kidnapped by Organization XIII. At this point in the story King Mickey makes Sora aware of the relation between Ansem, Xehanort and Xemnas. It is also revealed that plan of Organization XIII is to obtain the power of Kingdom Hearts.

As Sora, Donald and Goofy travel to Organization XIII’s headquarters, in the World That Never Was, they meet up with Kairi and Riku once more, who reveal the true relationship between Sora and Roxas.

King Mickey proceeds to meet with DiZ, who admits that he is Ansem the Wise, but while attempting to reduce the power of Kingdom Hearts by using a machine, the machine blows up and kills Ansem the Wise.

The game then ends with a mighty battle with shape-shifting Xemnas, whose defeat means that Sora, Kairi, Riku and company are able to return home to Destiny Islands.

And as the game ends, we see Sora, Riku and Kairi reading a letter from King Mickey. And so onto Kingdom Hearts III?

ONLY about 5 more weeks till october!!!