I've been back to the original Kingdom Hearts a few times in the past. I didn't really love the game back in 2002 when it first came out, but with more games and a bit of time I came to adore the original for its humble beginnings, colourful worlds and array of Disney characters. With III finally looming, I wanted to see if my love for the original still stood today, and the results were mixed. The original Kingdom Hearts is nowhere near a bad game, but it's one that's aged poorly in places and definitely feels every inch an early PS2 action RPG.

The combat was something I always had a ton of fun with, but even I was getting frustrated and tired with the floaty controls and awkward jumping. The further I progressed and the more skills Sora learnt, the better it felt and I began to have a bit more fun. I was perhaps even more excited to revisit the game's Disney worlds, but again I was left disappointed. So many of the levels require constant backtracking and some are so easy to get lost in (looking at you, Wonderland, Monstro, and Atlantica). The non-Disney worlds are the real highlights. I really enjoyed going back to Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion, both of which are anchored by dramatic story beats and fun enemies to do battle with. And out of the Disney worlds, only Halloween Town stands out to me for the adorable designs Sora and the gang get, and the clay-like look of the world.

Then there's the story, which by now is infamous for using time travel, alternate universes, and multiple different versions of the same character to convey things like darkness, friendship, and the heart. This time around, I valued the Disney characters and their stories much more than the Final Fantasy characters or the original characters, mostly because of Riku's teen angst and arrogance, or Sora's naivety. It's always been a little bit much for me, and even replaying it now I had a few eye-roll moments. But many of these moments are iconic, and deservedly so. Knowing what happens later on in the series, I was happy and surprised at just how simple (and clean) the original game was.

I wasn't expecting to come out of the original Kingdom Hearts as conflicted as I have. It's the third time I've played the game, and there were times where I just wanted it to be over, but I can see now just how far the series has come. There's a lot of great things that this game laid the foundations for, and some genuinely fun moments, and even things I wish were still present (give me more sidequests involving puppies or collectables!) I still appreciate the series on the whole, but the original has aged a little ungracefully. Despite this, I was glad I made time to revisit this game in time for the (apparently) final game in Sora's saga, and while this series isn't one of my favourites, it's something I'll always come back to to let off a bit of steam or indulge myself in the Disney worlds. I just might skip the first game in the future.

The unlikely pairing of Disney and Final Fantasy that is Kingdom Hearts ended up morphing into one of my favorite game franchises of all time, but the series stems from humble beginnings. The original Kingdom Hearts hasn't aged gracefully: the camera, which has always been a blight on this game, hasn't gotten any better with time, and exacerbates the floaty controls and wonky platforming. Kingdom Hearts also doesn't put its best foot forward with its selection of Disney worlds, as Wonderland and Deep Jungle are all awash with unclear signposting and repetitive backtracking that deeply undermines the sense of nostalgic wonder we ought to be feeling from seeing these Disney properties brought to life in (at the time) cutting-edge 3D.

And yet, I adore this game: I ended up Platinuming it for this podcast. The endgame, especially, is really something special. Sora gains a number of mobility options and passive abilities that help smooth out the game's traversal quirks, and make combat a lot more engaging. Hollow Bastion and the End of the World are both excellent levels, with a strange and ethereal atmosphere that imparts a surprising amount of melancholy upon the player. The story, which is a fairly cut-and-dry coming of age story, comes to a head, with Sora and Riku both exhibiting a fair amount of growth and experiencing iconic moments that will have repercussions throughout the future entries in the series. And the selection of hidden secrets, particularly some of the secret bosses, makes revisiting and exploring the Disney locales a lot of fun, even if grinding for materials to get the best gear takes a lot of patience. If you stick with Kingdom Hearts, your patience will be rewarded.

Ultimately, despite its incontrovertible flaws, I still think the original Kingdom Hearts is worth revisiting, especially for series newcomers who are curious what the fuss is all about. And hey, like we said in the podcast: it gets better.

I remember obtaining Kingdom Hearts as THE first game that I got for the PS2, as well as always finding the time to play it after school. Back then, I had a serious case of tunnel-vison where I was enamored with Disney motifs and completing it to the best of my ability; I guess one could say that I played it for more of the experience rather than the analytics. To state that I've always stood behind Square would more than likely be no less of a farce than to say Kingdom Hearts was the best PS2 game of all time (spoiler alert... it's not). To be clear, I do love this game and the series in question, but as for the first iteration in the series, it has flaws.

As I've (repeatedly) gone back to the game, I would often find different and interesting things about it, but ultimately noticed that it hasn't aged well. If I had to just start from anywhere, the camera is one of the major things that has continuously bugged me in any playthrough. Case in point, the game's introductory level, Destiny Islands, will either make or break one's patience levels with the camera by the time they get out of it. Since Sora tends to have floaty controls, nailing the platforming with the right angle of the camera will more than prove to be tedious enough. Yes, one can use locking on to get where they are going, but given that it only works for targetable objects, this can't always be relied upon.

On the other hand, some of the main characters of the game are rather lackluster or tend to hinder the story. I really, really, REALLY wanted to empathize with Sora, or even any of the characters at that matter. The problem I have with Sora is that he doesn't seem to stand out enough as a person of interest as he tends to bumble his way through things. Coming off as more or less bland, Sora does have blatant attributes of a PBS family show, but doesn't seem to develop until the story forces him into such positions. As a side note, I also felt Kairi should've been given more things to do rather than be prime real estate for a damsel in distress and a McGuffin for Sora. Oddly enough, I found Riku's character to be the best of the three in terms of likability. Beyond being tagged as the obvious "I bet he's going to be up to no good" type of guy, later on we see that he seems, in my opinion, to be better suited as the main character rather than Sora; unfortunately and fortunately, we don't get to fully see this until several games later.

A few redeemable qualities of the game are more within its sidequests. I love the grind; I don't understand why, as this might be speaking to more of my own character, but something about completing all of the coliseum cups and gathering materials seemed to be frustratingly fun. Any time I play Kingdom Hearts, I tend to play it differently based on how I want to get to certain sidequests and late-game events. Almost always, I will get lost within the Gummi Ship missions. While the missions themselves are more engaging in later games, it's the ship building that will engross most of my time. The secret boss battles are a welcome challenge as they encourage getting better items or just straight up playing more skillfully. I cannot tell you how many times I've retried many of these fights, but they always provide an added challenge regardless.

To digress, Kingdom Hearts does have a rather unique story. While this may set up a college sized knowledge of lore to it, the first game shows its playful side and kindly eases people into it. To be honest, it retroactively seems whimsical to me compared to the other games and could be retooled as more of a "coming of age" story. If anything, I think I find myself replaying the first game for less of a nostalgic factor and more of a deeper understanding on where the franchise came from. Even if Kingdom Hearts may not be the best game that the PS2 had offered, my opinion is that it should still be considered a classic for future generations to come.

I'm a longtime fan of Disney's animated films. I'm a longtime fan of Square's RPGs. Logically, I should've been a Kingdom Hearts fan from day one, but alas that wasn't the case. I played through more than half of the first Kingdom Hearts in the mid-2000s, but got too annoyed and gave up on it. This wasn't the Square-Disney crossover RPG I wanted. In the intervening 13 or 14 years, I openly disdained the entire series, poking fun at its convoluted story and weak execution of Disney settings despite only knowing the first half of the first game.

Was my stubborn Haterade consumption for longer than a decade rude and unfair? Yes. But it came from a real place; I gave the first Kingdom Hearts an honest attempt and ultimately disliked it. When listeners voted Kingdom Hearts to be a future Retro Encounter journal following episode 150 I was a little apprehensive, but it was time to face the music and try Kingdom Hearts again.

Kingdom Hearts's heart (heh) is in the right place. It seeks to celebrate Disney worlds and characters through a lens of a Japanese RPG, developed by the world's most acclaimed developer of Japanese RPGs. And it mostly succeeds! All the things I like best about Kingdom hearts (Disney characters, music, community hype) are unrelated to mechanics and barely related to plot. I still think the movement is too clumsy, the jumps are too floaty, and the dialog and characters are a major weakness. I can't get excited about Sora, Riku, or Kairi at all, and I wish Kingdom Hearts was Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey righting Disney wrongs instead of an ongoing saga starring original characters.

Replaying Kingdom Hearts wasn't a revelation, but I like the game more now than I did from 2004 to 2018. My criticisms haven't changed following this playthrough, but my perspective has. Kingdom Hearts is an optimistic, ambitious attempt at uniting Disney and Square into a video game, and nearly all of my hangups are because it's an action RPG of the early 2000s or because I prefer RPGs that star adults and not children. I'm intrigued enough to check prices on Kingdom Hearts 2's PS4 version, which was certainly not true any other time this decade.

And hey, I finally played Kingdom Hearts. Crossed it off the list. You can stop sending emails. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?