Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is a 2002 role-playing/action-adventure game developed by Square for the PS2. The game is the first installment in the Kingdom Hearts series, which merges the Final Fantasy video game world with the world of Disney. It is now rumored that an additional three games are in development which will bring the total number of games in the series to 9.

One day Sora (the main protagonist), Riku and Kairi are sailing on a raft near their home of Destiny Island. The island is attacked by mysterious shadow monsters, who destroy the islands. Riku and Kairi disappear during the chaos, leaving Sora all alone. Shortly after Sora acquires the Keyblade, he drifts into Traverse Town, where he meets Donald Duck and Goofy. The three travel together to various Disney-inspired worlds, defeating shadow monsters with the Keyblade, and helping Sora find his lost friends.

This is the first game of many.

The music score was composed by Yōko Shimomura along with Kaoru Wada who arranged the orchestral music. The performances took place at the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The soundtracks could be bought on CD or downloaded from an online music provider. The Disney worlds in the series have their traditional themes while others are given an original theme. As well as this, the battle theme and villain for each Disney world is different. The same goes with the Final Fantasy characters in the Kingdom Hearts series. Sephiroth appears with a modified version of "One-Winged Angel" composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

Each main game (Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II) has a theme song that so far has been written and performed by Utada Hikaru, Japanese pop star sensation. The songs are sung in Japanese for the Japanese versions of the game and in English for the rest of the world. In English "Simple and Clean" for the first game and "Sanctuary" for the second game, whilst in Japanese it's "Hikari" and "Passion". The songs achieved great popularity in Japan with "Hikari" reaching the number 1 song in 2002 http://www.tbs.co.jp/cdtv/songdb/song6784.html and "Passion" reached number 4 in 2005. http://www.tbs.co.jp/cdtv/songdb/song11375.html

Final Mix is a re-released version of the game which has an extended universe and another boss fight. Final Mix has only ever been released in Japan. While in the original Kingdom Hearts games, the International version had three more bosses when compared to the Japanese version; Kirt Zisa, Ice Titan and Sephiroth. The developers then wanted to give Japanese fans equal change of enjoying those features so Final Mix was made. Final Mix also gives the Japan market a lot more improvements and features, with new weapons, abilities and heartless hence the title, Final Mix was conjured. The game itself is in English with Japanese subtitles although the unfortunate use of PAL/SECAM/NTSC around the world raises issues as to who can actually play the game.

Final Mix gave very important clues and hints as to what expect in Kingdom Hearts II. An optional boss fight could take place in Hollow Bastion with Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII (which we know from KHII). Beforehand, he was simply known as Enigmatic Man.

One of the most important new discoveries was the addition of a secret movie unlocked when finishing the game on Expert mode or achieving 100% on Normal. The title of said movie was "Another Side, Another Story: Deep Dive". It was longer than the secret movie unlocked in the original Kingdom Hearts game and just explored Riku's and Roxas (previously known as the Blond-haired Boy) in more detail.

In order of release:

• Kingdom Hearts
• Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
• Kingdom Hearts II
• Kingdom Hearts coded
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Below are the main characters that appear in Kingdom Hearts:

• Sora

Homeworld- Destiny Islands

Role- Main Protagonist

Weapon- The Keyblade

Age- 14

• Kairi

Homeworld- Destiny Islands

Role- Protagonist

Weapon- N/A

Age- 14

• Riku

Homeworld- Destiny Islands

Role- Antagonist (?-varied)

Weapon- Dark Keyblade: Soul Eater

Age- 15

• Donald

Homeworld- Disney Castle

Role- Protagonist

Weapon- Mage's Staff

Age- N/A

• Goofy

Homeworld- Disney Castle

Role- Protagonist

Weapon- Shield

Age- N/A

• Ansem

Homeworld- Hollow Bastion

Role- Antagonist

Weapon- Varied

Age- N/A

• Destiny Islands

• Disney Castle

• Traverse Town

• Wonderland

• Olympus Coliseum

• Deep Jungle

• Agrabah

• Monstro

• Halloweentown

• Atlantica

• Neverland

• Hollow Bastion

• End of the World

• G4: Interview With Tesuya Nomura About Kingdom Hearts Sequels