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Kingdom Hearts for PlayStation 2
Kingdom Hearts for the PlayStation 2 is an action RPG in which Sora sets out to find his friends Riku and Kairi. After his home world is attacked, he meets Donald Duck and Goofy. Together, they travel through Disney worlds threatened by the Heartless. Sora uses the Keyblade, a weapon shaped like a key, to fight enemies and investigate the mysteries behind the attacks.
You control Sora directly during battles. You move between opponents, perform attacks and choose spells or items from the battle menu. Donald and Goofy fight alongside you, while the experience you gain helps you develop new abilities. Your choice of equipment and abilities influences your approach. Outside combat, you explore environments, jump to higher places and look for treasure chests and passages you may previously have overlooked.
The journey takes you to places including Wonderland and Agrabah, with characters and locations from different Disney films. Between worlds, you fly in a Gummi Ship, which you can customise with parts. These familiar settings come together in an original story about friendship and disappearing worlds. Characters from Final Fantasy also have a place in this encounter. Kingdom Hearts thus combines direct action with developing your character and discovering a different world at each stage.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Kingdom Hearts for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 and grew out of a collaboration between Square and Disney Interactive. The project had been announced at E3 in 2001. Tetsuya Nomura, who had previously designed characters for Final Fantasy, became its director and character designer. New hero Sora took the central role in an adventure where Disney figures met characters from Square's role-playing games.
That collaboration required more than bringing familiar names together. The team created its own central characters, including Sora, Riku and Kairi, and connected their story to separate Disney worlds. In a 2002 developer interview, the creators explained that those worlds retained their own boundaries: a character from Aladdin, for example, would not simply travel into Tarzan's setting. Donald and Goofy, by contrast, were the regular companions who connected the journey between worlds with Sora.
The creators wanted to incorporate plenty of action into the role-playing game. Moving, jumping and attacking directly therefore became important elements alongside equipment, experience and story. Music also had to hold the different environments together. Composer Yoko Shimomura described how existing Disney music and her own compositions needed to fit together. The first Kingdom Hearts thus gained a recognisable structure: each world had its own atmosphere, while Sora's group, the battle system and the music held the journey together. This PlayStation 2 release presents that original design.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Kingdom Hearts II continues Sora's journey on the PlayStation 2, once again bringing Disney worlds and direct combat together. New abilities, such as Drive Forms, expand his attacks. The first Kingdom Hearts introduces the main characters, the Keyblade and the search for the missing friends. Both combine a continuous story with each world's individual atmosphere.
Final Fantasy X follows Tidus and Yuna on a journey through Spira and places considerable emphasis on characters and their relationships. Its battles take turns, while in Kingdom Hearts you move and attack directly as Sora. The similarity lies in developing a group and gradually discovering the world behind the story.
Dark Cloud combines action combat in dungeons with restoring villages. You collect parts and use them to rebuild the surroundings. Kingdom Hearts mainly expresses that development through Sora's equipment and abilities. Both games connect exploring areas to battles in which you perform the movements and attacks yourself.
Dark Chronicle has you explore dungeons with two protagonists, develop weapons and rebuild settlements. Collecting and upgrading form a large part of its progression. Kingdom Hearts places more emphasis on Sora, Donald and Goofy's shared journey through Disney worlds. The relationship lies in direct action, character development and new abilities that emerge during the adventure.
Rogue Galaxy is an action RPG in which you visit different planets with a group and act directly in battles. Its science-fiction world and space travel give the journey a distinct form. Kingdom Hearts uses Disney worlds and Gummi Ship routes to connect them. Both link the discovery of new areas to party members, equipment and a story that gradually unfolds.
